In The News

Deported Uighurs Highlight China’s Ties to Cambodia

Brendan Brady January 11, 2010
China’s use of its economic power to foster investment or effect policy has acquired a new dimension with the repatriation of Uighur asylum seekers in Cambodia. As a signatory to the 1951 international Refugee Convention, Cambodia is obligated not to return refugees that may face persecution. But its role in the repatriation to China of 20 Uighurs, who may face prosecution for their alleged...

Uygur Detainees: Canberra Caught in Diplomatic Vice

Jonathan Pearlman June 4, 2009
The US has asked Australia to resettle a small group of Uighurs that, though released from prison, remain at Guantanamo Bay. They were captured in Afghanistan during the US sweep against the Taliban, but no proof of their involvement as terrorists has been found. As a result, the Uighurs, a minority group within China, have become a diplomatic hot potato as Beijing has asked Australia not to...

Reminder From a Five-Year-Old

Anshel Pfeffer May 11, 2009
While Mexico’s swine flu patient zero has recovered fully and is back engaged in what holds many five year olds’ attention – watching television – the process of the flu itself can provide a lesson in globalization. According to the author, international air travel was as much a cause, as a potential cure by transporting doctors and medicine, for the disease. Moreover, the media attention that...

NGO 2.0: Using the Web to Reunite Refugees

Charles Hawley March 24, 2009
Anyone can sign up for Facebook; establish unique identities based on name, hometowns and schools; and instantly reconnect with old flames and friends. Danish brothers Christopher and David Mikkelsen realized such a social-networking tool would also be ideal for refugees seeking separated family members after the disruptions of war, famine or other catastrophes, and so they developed a one-stop...

Whose Resistance?

Amr Hamzawy February 2, 2009
The plight of the Palestinian people fuels Muslim ire, boosting the popularity of non-state militants and non-militant religious groups alike. As a result, the Palestinians are sometimes seen as more symbol than humanity. Amr Hamzawy, with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, points to a decline of humanitarianism in the region, on the part of a brutal occupying force and on the part...

The Last Days of Paradise

Jon Henley November 11, 2008
Rising seas threaten to overwhelm the Maldives, and the first democratically elected president plans to put together a sovereign wealth fund directed at finding a new, environmentally secure home for a population of more than 350,000. President Mohamed Nasheed is looking at Sri Lanka, India, Australia and other nations with climates similar to that of the Maldives, known for its beautiful...

Foreign Policy Challenges for the New US President – Part II

Joseph Chamie November 3, 2008
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has remained at center stage of the world's attention for a half century, with permanent resolution proving an elusive goal. In the second part of a two-part series examining foreign-policy challenges for the next US president, demographer Joseph Chamie shows how that conflict might present itself in the coming years based on population trends of Israel and...