In The News

The 567-Page Story of a Humbled America

David Von Drehle July 23, 2004
The 9-11 Commission’s final report concludes that officials in the American security apparatus, which was still emerging from Cold War thinking, were guilty of "failures of imagination" in dealing with potential terrorist attacks. The report spreads blame around, citing diplomatic, intelligence, bureaucratic, and military shortcomings and saying that “The institutions charged with...

A Global Power Shift in the Making

James F. Hoge, Jr. July 21, 2004
China has an economy that by 2010 will be double the size of Germany’s. Japan has fed off this growth to pull itself out of its 1990s economic malaise and enjoyed a real GDP growth rate of 6.4% in the last quarter of 2003. Elsewhere in Asia, the “tigers” have recovered from the 1997 financial crisis, and India’s economy is growing at 8% per year with some economists predicting that India could...

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore Launch Coordinated Patrol of Malacca Strait

July 20, 2004
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore started joint naval patrols of the Malacca Strait on Tuesday. The move comes as a response to piracy in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, where approximately 50,000 commercial ships pass per year. Ships of the three countries will be able to enter each other’s territorial waters while in pursuit of pirates after obtaining official permission. Other...

Latortue Leads Delegation Urgently Seeking Cash Aid

Michael A.W. Ottey July 20, 2004
Haiti's interim Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, has asked for $924 million while at a two-day international donors conference that ends today at World Bank headquarters. Latortue says the money is part of an estimated $1.3 million necessary to get the country back on its feet after the fiscal mismanagement and political upheaval brought on by the administration and subsequent flight of...

America's Korea Policy Needs an Overhaul

Stephen W. Linton July 20, 2004
Despite decades of American economic and military support for South Korea, in recent years younger South Koreans have begun to express virulently anti-US views. It is no longer only in meetings with North Korea's communist government that American visitors to the Korean peninsula confront charges of US economic imperialism, war-mongering, and colonial intentions. In fact, says Korea...

Breaking for the Border

Salah Hemeid July 16, 2004
Some blame for the violence pervading war-torn Iraq rests in the hands of its neighbors, Iraqi officials claim. By facilitating or simply turning a blind eye to the religious militants who infiltrate Iraq in order to attack coalition and Iraqi forces, neighboring countries are undermining stabilization efforts. Iraq plans to step up pressure on its neighbors at an upcoming July 21 meeting in...

Manila's Iraq Pullout Due to Clout of Overseas Workers

Luz Baguioro July 16, 2004
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo faced a political conundrum of global proportions this week when deciding whether to pull troops from Iraq after Iraqi militants threatened to behead a Filipino truck driver. In deciding to withdraw troops from Iraq, the Philippines angered the United States, a country with whom military and trade connections are of the greatest importance. Arroyo's final...