In The News

Chechen Terrorism: Old World Motive, New World Method?

Ben Wetherall August 31, 2004
Less than a week after a recent Russian airline tragedy, a female suicide bomber attacked a Moscow subway station; evidence indicates that Chechen separatists were likely the perpetrators of both attacks. According to Russia analyst Ben Wetherall, the government's approach to the Islamic Chechen rebellion will determine the degree of success in preventing further violence. Outlining the...

Russian Missile Technology Allows N. Korea to Threaten U.S.

August 4, 2004
A recent article published by Jane’s Defence Weekly claims that North Korea is deploying new land- and sea-based ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and striking the United States. The technology for both systems reportedly comes from 12 former Soviet submarines that were sold to North Korea in the 1990’s, a claim which Russian defense officials adamantly deny. Regardless of...

Knock-on Effects will be Global if Iraq Carries on Downhill

Daljit Singh July 28, 2004
According to this op-ed by Daljit Singh, a senior research fellow at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies, defeat, or perception of defeat, of America in Iraq could have destabilizing consequences for not just the Middle East, but all of Asia as well. If the United States, the global hegemon, is unable to restore peace to this one Middle Eastern country, its credibility as a superpower will...

A Global Power Shift in the Making

James F. Hoge, Jr. July 21, 2004
China has an economy that by 2010 will be double the size of Germany’s. Japan has fed off this growth to pull itself out of its 1990s economic malaise and enjoyed a real GDP growth rate of 6.4% in the last quarter of 2003. Elsewhere in Asia, the “tigers” have recovered from the 1997 financial crisis, and India’s economy is growing at 8% per year with some economists predicting that India could...

America's Korea Policy Needs an Overhaul

Stephen W. Linton July 20, 2004
Despite decades of American economic and military support for South Korea, in recent years younger South Koreans have begun to express virulently anti-US views. It is no longer only in meetings with North Korea's communist government that American visitors to the Korean peninsula confront charges of US economic imperialism, war-mongering, and colonial intentions. In fact, says Korea...

Quo Vadis America?

Immanuel Wallerstein July 13, 2004
The world has long been divided between those who hail the US as a leader of global forces for human freedom and those who see it as an imperialist power. It is only recently, however, under the presidency of George W. Bush, that those who had negative feelings about the US were mostly citizens of Western countries, including the US itself. Social theorist Immanuel Wallerstein argues that an...

Gulf Security in a Globalizing World: Going beyond US Hegemony

Michael Kraig June 29, 2004
War and domestic political uncertainty have reigned in the Middle East during the past three decades. But one strategic reality has steadfastly evolved: the rise of the United States as an external guarantor of Gulf security. The continued presence of 138,000 US troops in Iraq after the formal handover of sovereignty is the latest reminder. However, while US military dominance may be...