In The News

Survivor: Chinese Communist Party

Jeffrey Wasserstrom June 4, 2007
Student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square during spring of 1989, ending with a massacre on June 4, prompted many foreigners mistakenly to predict the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP remains in power today, but confronts a growing set of challenges, both domestic and international. To counter complaints about the CCP micromanaging many aspects of private life throughout the 1980s...

Africa’s Storied Colleges, Jammed and Crumbling

Lydia Polgreen June 4, 2007
Africa’s institutions used to attract the continent’s future engineers and doctors, with many students going on to become leaders of their country. However, since the 1970s, corruption, mismanagement and government policies that favored primary and secondary education over higher education put the universities on a path to decline. African college students contend with crowded dormitories and the...

Militants Widen Reach as Terror Seeps Out of Iraq

Michael Moss May 29, 2007
US leaders described the war in Iraq as a defensive measure and a way to contain terrorists, and for the past four years, militants from around the world flocked to Iraq to fight US forces. But chaos is plentiful in Iraq, and experts report that organizers have expanded their mission to thwart Americans and any governments that support US goals, by dispatching fighters to other nations, including...

Was Osama Right?

Bernard Lewis May 22, 2007
Wars of ideology extend over the long term, and the patient believer waits and allows, even encourages, his various enemies to destroy one another. Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus of Princeton, analyzes how the former Soviet Union and the US had contrasting responses to attacks throughout the latter part of the 20th century. In general, the Soviets had less trouble interacting in Muslim nations...

Solar Flashlight Lets Africa’s Sun Deliver the Luxury of Light to the Poorest Villages

Will Connors May 21, 2007
Items taken for granted in one country can be a life-changing force in poor nations. After learning that almost one third of the world’s population lacks access to lighting, Mark Bent, a former foreign-service officer, arranged design of a solar flashlight, manufacturing in China and distribution of more than 30,000 units to Africans in refugee camps and rural villages. The flashlights allow...

Drop in Students Abroad Threatens Japan's "Edge"

Crystal Wong May 21, 2007
A growing number of Chinese and Korean students attend college in the US, but the number of Japanese students crossing the Pacific has been on the decline for the last decade. While this trend can be attributed to a variety of factors, the most significant is Japan’s traditional labor system: Firms hire graduates straight out of college, offering them in-house training and lifetime employment....

Feminist, Socialist, Muslim: Woman Puts Denmark Into Turmoil

Ian Traynor May 17, 2007
Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, 25, upends many people’s assumptions about a candidate for parliament – and not just because of her age. The young social worker is a devout Muslim who declines to shake hands with men and wears a traditional headscarf, but also supports progressive Danish policies including abortion and gay rights. Her positions – and particularly her insistence on wearing a headscarf, which...