In The News

Foreign Adoptions Tricky, Tough

Ashley Fantz December 17, 2003
American and European childless couples often make the choice to adopt from another country, assuming that the process will be quicker and easier. Instead, couples often find difficult hurdles to overcome, such as domestic and foreign laws, illegal kidnapping, greedy middlemen, visa trouble, and agencies that do not properly determine if the child was legitimately taken from the birth mother....

Iraqi Planners Hope to Start Trial by Spring

Rajiv Chandrasekaran December 16, 2003
Only days after the capture of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Iraqi leaders have already begun planning for his legal prosecution in an Iraqi courtroom. Vowing to choose only a manageable number of charges to bring against the former dictator, Salem Chalabi said the process would not be rushed, but that the trial could begin as early as the spring of 2004. "We don't want to...

Editorial: Window of hope opens for Iraq

December 15, 2003
Saddam Hussein's capture by US forces has taken the world by storm. For Iraqi politics, says this editorial in the United Arab Emirates' Gulf News, the news could not be better. The paper encourages Iraqis to take control of their own political futures and "build a new political momentum looking for peaceful political development." Noting that the Iraqi Governing Council...

Justice for Saddam

Harold Hongju Koh December 15, 2003
The capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003 marks an historic moment in the US-led effort to re-shape Iraq and the Middle East. To many of his foes and friends alike, Saddam's ignominious surrender to US forces was unexpected. Now, says Harold Koh, Dean-Designate of the Yale Law School, the world must face the question of what to do with this former dictator who chose to go...

Modern-Day Mercenaries

Raenette Taljaard December 9, 2003
From Iraq to Afghanistan, the US and its allies are relying on private military companies (PMCs) to provide a range of security services commonly associated with national militaries. Raenette Taljaard, Member of Parliament in South Africa, cautions that this move toward the privatization of security should not go un-checked. As unregulated non-state actors motivated by profits, PMCs can serve...

Where Taiwan Support Stops

Michael D. Swaine December 7, 2003
The potential for conflict between China and Taiwan seems to have increased recently with Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian announcement that he wants to hold a referendum on Taiwan's independence next March. Although the island-state – a thriving democracy for over a decade – already enjoys de facto independence from mainland China, Beijing still views it as an integral part of...

Backing Down on Steel Tariffs, U.S. Strengthens Trade Group

David E. Sanger December 5, 2003
The fight over US steel tariffs, writes David Sanger in the New York Times, will go down in history as the case that defines the World Trade Organization's power. No case in the eight year history of the WTO has tested its power to quite the same degree, but now it has been tested – and won. Last week President Bush was forced to eliminate steel tariffs that the WTO ruled illegal after the...