In The News

U.S. Probes Banks’ North Korea Ties

Glenn R. Simpson September 9, 2005
The US has launched a large-scale operation aimed at cracking down on the North Korean government’s criminal fundraising activities. The North Korean government is suspected of working with crime syndicates to counterfeit US currency and distribute mass quantities of fake cigarettes and methamphetamines. Observers believe this may be a major source of funding for North Korea’s nuclear weapons...

Indo-US Nuclear Deal is Problematic

George Perkovich September 9, 2005
The controversial civil nuclear cooperation deal signed by Indian and US leaders in July has sounded alarm bells around the world. George Perkovich, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wades through the fallout of the pact, critically assessing the ramifications of revised Indo-US nuclear relations. Perkovich argues that the strategic premises underlying...

Sensiblement, le rapprochement russo-chinois se precise

Yu Bin September 6, 2005

Russia and China Together Again, Gingerly

Yu Bin September 6, 2005
Beginning August 18, China and Russia embarked on an unprecedented military collaboration: an eight-day joint war game, named "Peace Mission 2005." Though officials of the two countries claimed the drills were for "anti-terrorist" goals, writes scholar Yu Bin, the exercises were "certainly oversized and of overkill capacity for any anti-terrorist operation."...

Central Asia's Energy Game Intensifies

Stephen Blank September 2, 2005
With China and India fiercely competing for accessible energy resources, the energy game in Central Asia has gained intensity in recent months. China attracted international attention last month when China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), a state-owned oil company, acquired PetroKazhakhstan, one of Kazakhstan's major energy producers. Meanwhile, India is following closely behind,...

Creating Islamist Phantoms

Adam Curtis August 30, 2005
In a Guardian commentary, Adam Curtis writes that it was a mistake, in the wake of 9/11, for the West to exaggerate the status of al-Qaida by painting a hyperbolic picture of an organized and far-reaching terrorist network. Curtis suggests that the true threat came not from a sophisticated network, but from individuals and groups linked by an idea. After the London bombings, many experts seem...

Osama's Endgame Approaches

John R. Bradley August 26, 2005
What goes around may, indeed, come around in Osama bin Laden's ongoing terrorist campaign, whose past and future boil down to one Middle Eastern nation. "Osama's descent into specifically anti-American global terrorism can, in fact, be traced back to his falling out with the Saudi ruling family," writes John R. Bradley. And, he continues, due to the failure to establish...