In The News

Latin America's family remittances -- heading south?

Andres Oppenheimer December 10, 2004
Every year, more than $30 billion in family remittances flows from the United States to Latin America. This money encourages economic growth, and many countries actually get more in remittances than from foreign investment. In addition, this money goes to those who need it most, helping to lift people out of poverty. However, a recent Columbia University study warns these countries against...

If UN Fails, We All Do

Fareed Zakaria December 9, 2004
The military or humanitarian “failures” of the United Nations over the years must be recognized as collective failures of member countries, argues Newsweek Editor Fareed Zakaria. The Rwandan genocide a decade ago is a case in point: Decisions made among the most powerful U.N. member nations, including the US, the UK, and France, led to completely botched peacekeeping operations. Now on the brink...

Learning the Hard Way in Kosovo

Alkman Granitsas December 9, 2004
A newly released report on UN reform suggests that the path be cleared for the world organization to intervene in sovereign nations and send peacekeepers to places like Darfur or Rwanda. But before rushing the blue berets to the next political crisis, the international community would do well to learn from past missteps in other parts of the world. In the past 15 years, the nature of peacekeeping...

Business is Blooming

Peter Willems December 8, 2004
A recent United Nations report shows that Afghanistan's poppy production is reaching worrisome new heights. As newly-inaugurated president Hamid Karzai steps into the spotlight, the problems of opium growth continue to increase. The effort to stop the drug trade has been hampered by local infighting, governmental corruption, and an unsuccessful attempt to wean farmers off the profitable, but...

Arab Internet Users Are Caught in a Terrible Web

William Fisher December 7, 2004
In many Arab countries, internet users today are facing tight restrictions on free speech. A human rights group recently charged that certain Arab governments, such as Iran, Syria, and Tunisia, employ not just traditional methods of limiting freedom of expression - censorship and confiscation - but also technologies such as electronic filtering programs to control access to what they consider...

North Koreans Eager to Cash in on Tourism

Joo Sang Min December 7, 2004
At the tourist resort Mount Kumgang near the South and North Korean border, South Koreans' consumerism is slowly changing their northern neighbors. North Korean military forces are a common sight at the resort, but here, their main job is to blaze roads for tour buses, and create photo-ops for South Korean tourists. Increasingly, North Koreans are finding it hard to resist the lure of hard...

Re-Popularizing Peace

December 3, 2004
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to discuss recent developments in Palestine and Syria – a sign that Egypt is determined once again to play an important role in facilitating Middle East peace. While Syria has reportedly expressed a desire to re-open peace talks, Israel may not want to negotiate at a time when Syria faces strong...