In The News

Clearing Clouds Over the Karakoram Pass

Ziad Haider March 29, 2004
Over the latter half of the 20th century, relations between China and Pakistan were anchored in large part on both countries' strategic interest in balancing India as a regional power. The Karakoram Highway, which runs for 500 miles between the two nations, is representative of those collective interests. However, says Ziad Haider of the Henry L. Stimson Center, since the Highway was...

Kerry's Solution to Offshoring

Sam Zuckerman March 27, 2004
Under the US tax system, companies that produce goods abroad wait until the capital reenters the country to pay taxes. According to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, this "tax holiday" structure has led to an increase in foreign investment at the expense of domestic business. In an effort to rebuild domestic industry and bring back jobs, Senator Kerry has proposed to...

A Million Yassins?

Amira Howeidy March 26, 2004
Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, but the future of diplomatic relations between the two countries now looks shaky. Israel’s assassination last Monday of Hamas founder and prominent Palestinian, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, has set off zealous anti-Israel reactions among Egyptians. An estimated 50,000 university students protested at major Egyptian cities, and even those who...

Europe vs. America's Operating System

Grant R. Mainland March 26, 2004
"Europeans and Americans talk trade or antitrust when the real issue is the legitimacy of American power," writes Grant Mainland, a research specialist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In this commentary, Mainland compares Microsoft's monopoly position in software to the US monopoly on global military power. Just fined US$613 million under European antitrust...

American Democracy May Taste Indian Voting Machines

March 26, 2004
As the US presidential election approaches (and memories of the 2000 election's complications remain fresh), the question of how US citizens will vote – by machine or by paper – has become unusually heated. Now an Indian company, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), enters the fray by marketing its own voting machine designed for India' parliamentary elections. Importing electronic voting...

Averting 9/11: How Close We Came

Faye Bowers March 25, 2004
Collecting accurate intelligence and building strategic alliances with front line states in Asia and the Middle East are quickly emerging as the indispensable tools for preventing future terrorist attacks. In the on-going 9/11 hearings in Washington, high ranking officials from the Clinton and the current Bush Administrations agree to the inherent difficulties in taking forceful action against...

74 Illegal Immigrants Held in Surprise Raid in Abu Dhabi

Muawia E. Ibrahim March 24, 2004
The movement of people across countries is very much a fact of modern life. International migration is instrumental in decreasing the distance between different cultures and people. Yet, in the contemporary period of global terrorism and ethno-religious violence, migrants can also be the source of tremendous anxiety. This week in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, immigration squads...