In The News

Can Global Warming Be Studied Too Much?

Andrew C. Revkin December 3, 2002
Globalization has resulted in a world in which actions in one area may have far-reaching consequences across the globe, and in no field of study is that fact more relevant than the current debate over global warming. The Bush administration has convened a three-day meeting to discuss the agenda for researching climate change. All agree that pollution, especially from fossil fuels, plays some...

Mexican Immigration Still Up in Air

Dane Schiller November 27, 2002
A meeting between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda ended with a $25 million pledge to help coordinate border security efforts between Mexican and US law enforcement officials. The larger issue of whether the US will permit temporary workers to enter the US from Mexico is still elusive, despite being one of Mexican president Vicente Fox's main...

The Axis of Irony

Strobe Talbott November 26, 2002
The Iraq crisis could have the ironic but salutary effect of reinvigorating the United Nations, revealing George W. Bush to be more of a multilateralist than the rest of the world thought (and feared), and establishing a welcome degree of continuity in American foreign policy. - YaleGlobal

Behold the Leviathan

Kari Huus November 26, 2002
In a time of much political and economic uncertainty at the international level, MSNBC conducted a series of interviews with people around the world, asking them to comment on several aspects of American policy and culture. Democracy, equality, and freedom—fundamental virtues and values—received much admiration from those surveyed abroad. When asked about America’s foreign policy, they changed...

A Beleaguered Hemisphere

November 22, 2002
Hailed as a shining example of the merits of free trade and democratic reforms in the early 1990s, Latin America has become burdened by a series of economic downturns and tumultuous political conditions. Addressing its concerns in isolation does not seem like a viable option. With events in other world regions demanding attention from the United States, the problems of its southern neighbor have...

US, Singapore on Brink of Sealing Free-Trade Pact

November 19, 2002
American and Singaporean negotiators spent most of last night negotiating the final terms of the first American-Asian free-trade agreement, which, if all goes smoothly, could be signed as early as next year. The two sides agreed on all but one major issue (that of capital transfers in-and-out of Singapore). Singapore’s geopolitical importance, with its modern technology and peaceful political and...

The Internet: China's Window to the World

Guo Liang November 18, 2002
Why would the Communist Party, which attempts to censor all media in China, allow and even encourage Chinese citizens to surf the internet? So that people can explore the world, of course! Helping Chinese people learn about the world is the big goal, according to President Jiang Zemin. But the cat-and-mouse game played by censoring authorities and news-hungry Chinese reveals the tensions...