In The News

Headscarf Ban and Multi-Secularisms

Muhamad Ali January 20, 2004
In Jakarta, Muslim women protested France's headscarf ban at state schools in front of the French Embassy. To these Indonesian women, France's prohibition of religious symbols, including large crosses and Jewish skullcaps, violates the rights of French citizens. Headscarves, they maintain, are a religious obligation, not a cultural expression, and outlawing them interferes with a...

Africa's Potemkin Deception

Michael Holman January 19, 2004
Just as the Russian Prince Potemkin once created mock villages in the Ukraine and the Crimea to convince Catherine the Great of her empire’s health, so may the continent’s modern benefactors be deluding themselves and the world about its progress, argues Michael Holman, former Africa editor of the Financial Times. Sub-Saharan Africa remains mired in poverty, disease, and debt, yet manufactured...

Souring Relations

Ashraf Khalil January 16, 2004
The US effort to stabilize Iraq may not be going as planned, reports this article in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly newspaper. Several arguments have erupted of late that threaten to divide Iraq's Interim Governing Council (IGC) and the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority. Disagreements over appointees to the Council, disputes over the role of the United Nations in facilitating a...

EU Seeks Sanctions Against US

Mark Tran January 15, 2004
Just days after US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick called on other countries to renew global trade negotiations, the US is under fire for failing to comply with the trade rules it helped establish. Last year, the World Trade Organization (WTO) declared that the 'Byrd Amendment' put the US in breach of the organization's rules. The amendment allows the US to distribute funds...

Asia's Security Depends on Opportunities for All

Surin Pitsuwan January 15, 2004
Since 1997's economic crisis in East Asia, many countries in the region have struggled to cope not only with economic problems but also pressing security issues. Surin Pitsuwan, former foreign minister of Thailand, writes here that Asia's security problems are deeply intertwined with its economic and political woes. Education, nutrition, healthcare, and basic social services are all...

Follow the Leader on Iraqi Debt

Timothy W. Guinnane January 15, 2004
In trying to rebuild a shattered Iraq, Washington is asking other governments to reduce or restructure debts owed them by the war-torn country. With over $120 billion at stake, this is not a small request. Still, debt reduction is an important goal, says Yale economic historian Timothy W. Guinnane. As in post-WWII Germany, he writes, debt reduction could facilitate Iraq's economic rebirth...

Chinese Chess in Space

Joan Johnson-Freese January 13, 2004
As the White House prepares plans for a new US manned space initiative, President Bush might want to invite China to the drawing board. Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert in Chinese space technology at the US Naval War College, believes that China's recent successful manned space flight signifies that Beijing is committed to exploring space. Rather than ignore China's achievements and...