In The News

'Worse than 1967'

Amira Howeidy April 23, 2003
Twenty-nine Egyptian intellectuals have protested Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s statement that Saddam Hussein was the cause of the American invasion of Iraq. Instead, this disparate group of thinkers have offered other reasons for the war—the inherent weakness of authoritarian governments, the need for political liberalization in some Arab states, or even the ‘fall’ of Arab power after the...

If Nike Defends Itself, Is That a Commercial?

Linda Feldmann April 23, 2003
Nike Inc. is the world's largest athletic footwear company. Nike, with its 900 factories in 51 countries and more than 600,000 employees, is currently embroiled in a Supreme Court case in the US. This case stems from a 1998 lawsuit, in which San Francisco activist Marc Kasky charged that Nike had made false statements about sweatshop conditions in its Asian factories. Mr. Kasky asserted...

US Drops Censure of China on Human Rights

Edward Alden April 11, 2003
The US has decided not to offer a resolution condemning human rights violations in China for the first time in ten years. Two weeks earlier the annual State Department report said China’s record remained poor throughout the year, though it suggested a marginal improvement in some areas. One China expert claims that US is rewarding China for taking a backseat role in opposing the war in Iraq,...

A Sinister Past Comes to Light at an Iraqi Post

Jim Dwyer April 6, 2003
Photos found in a military headquarters tell of Saddam’s regime of torture.

Yale Discusses the Implications of the Iraq War

April 4, 2003
Whether one is for or against the war in Iraq, one cannot underestimate the immense significance of the event to world affairs.. Hosted by the interdisciplinary program in Ethics, Politics and Economics at Yale University, six professors reflected on the war in Iraq, its buildup, and its aftermath. All felt that this would be a watershed event in world order and in the ways in which war is...

A day at ‘Hyde Park’

Amira Howeidy March 28, 2003
Public demonstrations have been banned in Egypt since the establishment of the "emergency law" in 1967, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of thousands of citizens from protesting the US-led war on Iraq. Angry students, journalists, lawyers, and religious leaders filled Tahrir Square last week in what has been called the biggest demonstration since the student campaign for democracy in...

World Court for Crimes of War Opens in The Hague

Marlise Simons March 12, 2003
"The most ambitious initiative in the history of modern international law" begins today in the Hague. Charged with prosecuting crimes against humanity, genocide, and other grave atrocities when national governments refuse or are unable to seek justice, the new International Criminal Court has been ratified by only 89 signatory countries. Notable exceptions include the United States,...