In The News

Showdown for a Tool in Human Rights Lawsuits

Alex Markels June 15, 2003
Multinational corporations (MNCs) are often subject to accusations by human rights and anti-globalization activists. To add to a long list of MNCs brought before US courts, energy giant Unocal currently faces a lawsuit filed by villagers from southeastern Myanmar, in a California court. Unocal is accused of aiding military authorities in Myanmar (Burma) in human rights abuses against local...

Roosevelt Was Right about Multilateralism

Ernesto Zedillo June 13, 2003
What would provide the world with real hope of living in prosperity and peace? Global cooperation is a good starting point, says Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico and current Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. The United States once took the lead in establishing international institutions to prevent conflict and promote global well-being. As such, the United...

Immigrant Horror Stories Leading Nation to Policy Change

Carlos Guerra June 12, 2003
Along the US-Mexico border, this year alone over 100 people have died while trying to illegally cross into the US. But the high death toll will not prevent yet more hopeful migrants from making this dangerous journey. Economic downturns like the current one often lead to calls for tougher immigration restrictions in the US, but, ironically, they also often coincide with an increase in flows of...

A Primer for Cross-Strait Relations

Chen Hurng-yu June 11, 2003
If Taiwan ever wants to improve cross-strait relations and free itself of interference from Beijing, it will need to depart from the 1971 framework and change its foreign policy, says Chen Hurng-yu, professor of history at Taiwan's National Chengchi University. The overlapping claims of Taipei and Beijing to sovereignty over China – a dispute that has continued since the UN denied Taiwan’s...

Japan Adopts Laws Strengthening Military Powers

Howard W. French June 7, 2003
As tensions mount in North Korea, the Japanese Parliament has passed a series of war contingency bills that increase the power of the government to use military force in a time of emergency. These bills represent the first major expansion of Japanese military power; the treaty ending WWII had reduced its military to a self-defense force that often facilitates US efforts. The laws have sparked a...

U.S.-Thai Immunity Pact "Flouts Sovereignty"

June 5, 2003
The U.S. has launched a world-wide campaign to persuade countries to sign agreements that would protect U.S. citizens from international judicial prosecution. The Thai government, led by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has planned to join the list of 34 countries who have signed such an agreement with the U.S. But the Thai Senate Committee for Foreign Affairs is opposed to the Prime Minister...

America's War on Terror Goes Awry in Pakistan

Ahmed Rashid June 4, 2003
Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia and Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, offers a scathing indictment of US foreign policy in South Asia, post-September 11. Rashid argues that US-led military action and victory in Afghanistan did not eradicate the Islamic fundamentalist ideology of the Taliban. Rather, Taliban's...