In The News

Global Environmentalism Hits China

Guobin Yang February 4, 2004
Capitalism is not the only '-ism' flourishing in China today. Since the early 1990s, the country's battles against dust storms, deforestation, watershed pollution, and other problems have attracted the attention of both domestic groups and foreign environmental organizations. The government in Beijing signaled its official commitment to sustainable development after the 1992 Rio...

Job Description for the Next Pope

R. Scott Appleby February 3, 2004
Historian R. Scott Appleby believes the Catholic Church must ensure the next Pope fulfills a broad range of qualifications, not least of which is the ability to redefine the Church's understanding of current issues. Specifically, three challenges will confront the next Pope, and indeed the Catholic Church. Increased secularization, "indifferent or hostile to religious faith,"...

Immigrants Shouldn't Act like Dracula's 'Undead'

Sunanda K. Datta-Ray February 3, 2004
In a provocative essay, Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, a researcher at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies, argues that the sympathetic worldwide response to the proposed French ban on religious symbols in schools highlights the development of the "globalization of protest" and social movements. Improved communications and the rapid flow of ideas, ideologies and people across national...

For Bush, a Tactical Retreat on Iraq

Dana Milbank February 2, 2004
Without going as far as to admit being wrong, US President George W. Bush has agreed to create an independent review committee to investigate US intelligence failures in Iraq. Last week David Kay, the former US chief weapons inspector in Iraq, said that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction before the US attacked Saddam Hussein's government and called for an independent...

Earthquake Narrows US-Iran Rift

Roshanak Taghavi January 30, 2004
A devastating earthquake in the city of Bam, Iran, may help to bring the United States and Iran closer together. Washington's offer to provide humanitarian aid to help over 40,000 quake victims marks the first open cooperation between the US and Iran in a quarter-century. According to this article in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly, however, Iran is skeptical about pursuing warmer relations in...

Turkish-German Integration Smooths Cultural Divisions

Peter Badenhop January 30, 2004
In an interview with Germany's F.A.Z. Weekly, the Turkish ambassador to Germany, Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, discusses the importance of integrating German Muslims of Turkish descent, Germany's largest immigrant group, into mainstream German society. The erroneous perception of all Muslims as religious fundamentalists inhibits integration, he says, and it undermines their contribution to...

Thailand Concedes Missteps on Bird Flu

Alan Sipress January 29, 2004
The Thai government has admitted that it fumbled during the early stages of the bird flu outbreak. Yet it is now committed to aggressive action and transparent collaboration. Some Thai farmers are unhappy, however, claiming that if the government had taken the proper steps back in November, when the flu was first discovered, the need for large scale slaughter of chickens, possibly harming the...