In The News

We Have Your Number

Nandan Nilekani January 21, 2011
Trade, technology and other facets of globalization have delivered wealth to India. But distribution of benefits is uneven in the nation of more than 1.1 billion, on track to exceed China as the most populous. The World Bank estimates that more than 35 percent of Indians live below the poverty line, and despite rapid job growth, the informal nature of most work excludes large numbers of poor from...

Overthrow of Tunisian President Jolts Arab Region

Liz Sly, Leila Fadel January 19, 2011
Depending on one’s position, the protests that drove the Tunisian president from power inspire either hope or fear about a domino effect. Citizens living under brutal authoritarian regimes throughout the Middle East, from Algeria to Yemen, resent corruption, limited political participation and dismal economic conditions have responded with a burst of anger unnerving leaders and their foreign...

A Walled Wide Web for Nervous Autocrats

Evgeny Morozov January 13, 2011
The philosophy of the open-source software movement maintains that the internet is a vehicle for free speech, too essential for proprietary ways. Suspicion that US law enforcement officials have requested backdoor access from US software producers has alarmed governments and users around the globe. Moving to end dependence on US products, Russia will require public institutions to rely on open-...

WikiLeaks Poses Legal Challenges for US Prosecutors

Kate Woodsome December 27, 2010
At the start of 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heralded internet freedom as a top foreign policy concern. But the website WikiLeaks released a series of embarrassing military and diplomatic cables, and the US restricts its employees from reading documents readily available throughout the world. US analysts and researchers are at a disadvantage with foreign counterparts who can review...

The Post-WikiLeaks World – Part II

Rebecca Wexler December 17, 2010
After WikiLeaks released secret diplomatic cables, the US government strives to apologize for sensitive breaches in confidences and punish all involved. Internet privacy is elusive for both individuals and powerful institutions, and this two-part series examines responses to leaks from governments and internet chat forums. The second article describes a motley group of strangers who apply...

The Post-WikiLeaks World – Part I

Jamsheed K. Choksy December 15, 2010
Behind closed doors, government officials often relay sentiments that differ from public proclamations, and the public takes this for granted. But release of classified US State Department cables via WikiLeaks has exposed hundreds of specific examples, shocking in their rawness. The release underlines the promises and perils of fast global communications. It is a world where an individual can...

Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

Noah Shachtman December 15, 2010
In a classic case of closing the barn door after the horse has run off, the Pentagon has ordered troops against using CDs, flash drives or other removable devices on the Department of Defense system for classified documents. The military is targeting what it labels an “insider threat,” after the release of thousands of classified US State Department cables. The US suspects a young Army private,...