In The News

Horn of Africa Braces for Violence in Wake of Somalia's Failed Peace Talks

Alisha Ryu November 3, 2006
A round of Somali peace talks failed to produce a power-sharing agreement between the fragile secular government based in Baidoa and the Islamists who control Mogadishu. The breakdown highlights a long and bitter rivalry between Somalia, largely Muslim, and Ethiopia, with equal numbers of Christians and Muslims. Talks failed, according to this Voice of America report, after the Islamists...

Try Diplomacy, Not War

Ernesto Zedillo November 3, 2006
After this summer’s war in Lebanon, a small window of opportunity has opened in the Middle East, according to Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Even as political divisions run deep in Lebanon and neighboring countries, the conflict demonstrated that current trends and attitudes are not productive. Israel, the US, the Palestine Authority, Syria and other...

The Withdrawal Syndrome – Part II

Dilip Hiro November 2, 2006
With daily bombings, sniper attacks and abductions, the US struggles to devise a withdrawal plan while maintaining control in Baghdad. This two-part series analyzes how policymakers and citizens in both the US and Iraq question the value of a US presence in the country. With the mid-term election in the US on Tuesday, Republicans could lose control of one chamber in Congress, and President George...

Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age

Noah Feldman November 1, 2006
Iran’s defiance over international demands that it stop nuclear research could galvanize Shiites to demand more power throughout Asia, leading to nuclear proliferation on the continent. With violence escalating between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq, author Noah Feldman ponders how the competing sects might handle a nuclear weapon in their midst. Nuclear weapons have less meaning as deterrents in...

Silence Is a Decree All Should Fear

Umberto Eco October 30, 2006
People increasingly fear posing questions about other cultures or engaging in criticism. Religious fundamentalists are not the only culprits, according to writer Umberto Eco. He also criticizes Western cultures that promote political correctness for stirring fear about free speech. Eco warns that outrage about every gaffe and a growing culture of silence will mask history, polarize those with...

Way Radical, Dude

Jose Antonio Vargas October 20, 2006
Radical Islamic organizations have developed video games that aim to kill US President Bush or rescue Iranian nuclear scientists from US Special Forces. For some Middle Easterners, the new games are a response to US Defense Department games that depict Muslims as military targets. But the Army Game Project denies that it focuses on any particular people or region. The free video games produced in...

A Clash of Civilizations in Europe?

Patrick Sabatier October 17, 2006
Secular Europe and some of its Muslims citizens continue to clash – not in direct battle but over cartoons, operas, newspaper essays and school customs. The clashes are a product of a globalized media system, according to French journalist Patrick Sabatier, with instant information about any perceived slight to faith over satellite television or internet obscuring complex issues and provoking...