In The News

Excluding Taiwan from the World’s View

Daniel Lynch March 3, 2003
Taiwan, though still unrecognized as a state internationally, has achieved economic success and democracy as other Asian countries have floundered. Yet China continues to talk of recovering Taiwan, and the UN will not use the country’s name. Daniel Lynch attributes this to China’s international wealth and power and the world’s acquiescence to the Chinese government’s bullying. He calls on the...

Infiltrators of North Korea: Tiny Radios

James Brooke March 3, 2003
During the Kim family’s 60-year rule over North Korea, the rest of the world has witnessed a communications boom: especially in recent years the Internet, cell phones, and the rest of the “information revolution” have made it easy to communicate from thousands of miles away. But Pyongyang's communist regime has made it all but impossible for North Koreans to take part in that revolution....

War for Peace? It Worked in My Country

José Ramos-Horta February 25, 2003
In this opinion article in The New York Times, José Ramos-Horta, East Timor's minister of foreign affairs and cooperation – and a man who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 – supports the possible use of force in removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. East Timor was only liberated from Indonesia, he writes, thanks to an international peacekeeping force. Although he urges the Bush...

Where Did All the Anger Go?

Amira Howeidy February 21, 2003
Protesters on every continent marched for peace on February 15, but the turnout in Egypt was rather small. The few hundred that did show were largely stifled by a massive police presence; public protest has been illegal in Egypt since a state of emergency was declared in 1981, and lately authorities have been jailing dissidents with more frequency. Though many were frustrated by the...

China's Win-Win Globalization

Michael Yahuda February 19, 2003
Since the early 1990s, China has been making a concerted effort to integrate itself into the world economy and cultivate relations with its Asian neighbors, as well as the U.S., in order to promote stability and prosperity in the region. Michael Yahuda, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, explains how China's stance towards...

Election for Criminal Court Judges Starts

Mark Turner February 4, 2003
The upcoming election of the first bench of judges for the International Criminal Court has raised interesting debates among the 88 member states on issues of sovereignty and citizenship; especially between some European countries and the United States, which differ greatly on these issues. The Court will handle trials of crimes against humanity, and while diplomats have expressed satisfaction at...

European Court Agrees to Hear Chechens’ Suits Against Russians

January 17, 2003
In a move that both brings Russia within the fold of European law and alienates it from the European community, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Chechens could sue the Russian army for crimes against humanity during the war in Grozny and its surroundings. This moves the Russian and Chechen fight out of domestic courts and into the international arena, giving credence to Chechnya’s...