In The News

Deadly Flu Strain Shipped Worldwide

Rob Stein April 13, 2005

Health officials worldwide are scrambling to secure a potentially lethal sample of the flu virus sent to over 3,700 laboratories for testing. As part of routine quality control procedures, scientists often order flu samples from private biotechnology companies in order to certify their laboratories. These samples are usually innocuous and safe for testing. As a scientist in Winnipeg, Manitoba...

Russia's Neighbors

Vladimir Radyuhin April 7, 2005

As optimists salute democracy's march in the Middle East, so too do they point towards the former republics of the Soviet Union, where a spate of "democratic" revolutions has toppled three Russian-backed governments. Georgia, Ukraine, and now Kyrgyzstan have all undergone sweeping regime changes. But Russian analysts, like Vladimir Radyuhin, are cautious in their appraisals of such...

The Spirit of Bandung

Josef Purnama Widyatmadja April 6, 2005

In 1955, epresentatives from nations across two continents convened at the first ever Asia-Africa conference, held in Bandung, Indonesia. That first summit was a statement of principle – world regions, under the constraints of imperialist or colonial powers, could indeed assert themselves on a global stage outside the sphere of Western influence. In the midst of a global ideological struggle,...

Friendship Across Continents

Ibrahim Nafie April 1, 2005

The term "transatlantic relations" usually refers to Europe and the United States. But if current Latin American initiatives succeed, "transatlantic relations" may soon describe the growing ties between Latin America and the Middle East. Brazil will host the first ever summit of South American and Arab countries this May. Not only will the conference highlight the two regions...

US Yet to Accommodate China's Rise

Philip Stephens April 1, 2005

Compared to the war in Iraq, the hunt for bin-Laden, and the rift in the transatlantic alliance, writes columnist Philip Stephens, "the implications of China's rapid emergence as a global power have been neglected." Only recently have the full geopolitical implications of China's burgeoning economic power come to the forefront of US policy. And according to Stephens, the...

Prisoner's Release Does Not Herald a Xinjiang Spring

Dru C. Gladney March 30, 2005

The recent release of a Uyghur businesswoman from a Chinese prison may have appeased the visiting US Secretary of State, but the gesture also underscored the continual frictions between China and its Uyghur ethnic minority. Beijing's official stance is that Muslim Uyghurs separatists pose a terrorist threat, but as Dru C. Gladney suggests, this may actually be a case of so-called "...

La liberation d’un prisonnier ne prefigure pas un repit au Xinjiang