In The News

Worthy Goal

Eric Farnsworth November 18, 2003
“The negotiations over a Free Trade Area of the Americas are not ultimately about agriculture subsidies, orange juice, or even competing claims of jobs won or lost,” argues Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of the Americas. “Rather, they are about building a democratic hemisphere consistent with strategic interests.” He explains that direct foreign investment drives economic growth...

U.K. Police, Protesters Await Bush

November 18, 2003
The British are planning to welcome U.S. President Bush’s visit with protests, intense security measures, and surprisingly extensive public support. While many British are taking Bush’s trip to the UK as an opportunity to express their discontent with the war in Iraq, recent polls suggest that more Britons welcome the visit than oppose it. Moreover, a majority – some 62 percent – says it...

US Backs Down Over Free Trade in Americas

Guy de Jonquières November 17, 2003
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement will come under debate in Miami on Thursday. Each of the nations involved is working hard in the days leading up to the negotiations to push its particular vision of what the agreement should look like or whether there even should be a regional trade area in the Americas. The US has advocated a more extreme version of liberalization than what...

Turkey Says Foreign Terrorists May Be Behind Suicide Blasts

Craig S. Smith November 17, 2003
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a little-known group with ties to Al Qaeda, is taking responsibility for Sunday's coordinated bombings of two Jewish synagogues in Istanbul. The group has also claimed responsibility for the bombings of the UN headquarters in Iraq in August and of the Baghdad hotel used by the Iraqi Governing Council in October. Neither of the past claims has been substantiated...

US Can't Rely Solely on Might

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. November 17, 2003
The privatization of war by transnational terrorists is the gravest threat of the twenty-first century, argues Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Nye believes that insofar as the source of threat is changing from large conventional states to rogue states and terrorist networks, the US should rely more on its soft power than its military might. "Soft...

Seoul in Dilemma Over Iraq Troops

Seo Hyun-jin November 15, 2003
With the original goal of helping the United States to reconstruct Iraq, South Korea sent 675 army engineers and medics there over the summer. But now, citing security concerns, South Korea will most likely not meet a US request for 5,000 combat troops to help stabilize the country. Some Korean officials are worried that their country's reluctance to commit more troops in Iraq may damage the...

Europeans Need Clearer Vision to Revive WTO Talks

Shada Islam November 14, 2003
The US and the European Union helped derail negotiations at the Cancun meeting of the World Trade Organization by refusing to end subsidies to their farmers. Although European leaders talk of building a multi-polar new world order, says Shada Islam, their stand at the WTO betrays a reluctance to deal with the developing world as equals. The deal the European Union struck with Washington is...