In The News

Truck Bomb in Chechnya Kills at Least 36 and Wounds Scores

Steven Lee Myers May 12, 2003
The continuing separatist movement in the southern region of Russian territory certainly suggests that the breakup of the Soviet Union over 10 years ago is not quite over. Chechen rebels, fighting for independence from the Russian state, claim that the Russians are denying their right to sovereignty over their own nation, while Russian officials consider the rebels to be a fringe terrorist...

Korea’s New Wave

Suki Kim May 10, 2003
North Korea and South Korea have vastly different political systems and economies, and occupy distinct positions in world politics. Yet in recent years, people in North and South Korea seem to be share a growing resentment towards American involvement in Korean affairs. In spite of the apparent ‘Americanization’ of South Korea, most South Koreans believe that American involvement has impeded a...

Seven Nuclear Sites Looted

Barton Gellman May 10, 2003
Seven nuclear facilities in Iraq were heavily damaged or destroyed by mass lootings that began with the arrival of US ground forces in Iraq in April. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and U.N. resolutions, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has the sole legal authority to carry out inspections of the nuclear sites. But all that changed with the Iraq War. IAEA has even had...

Anglosphere: Limits to Globalization

James C. Bennett May 3, 2003
In this essay James C. Bennett addresses the limits of globalization. According to Bennett, amongst the enduring benefits of globalization are innovations in travel, world economy, and medical and technological breakthroughs. However, Bennett argues against a universal paradigm for globalization because globalization often occurs between nations and economies that are similarly positioned in...

A Triumph Over the Romans Seen as the Birth of the German Nation

Hans Riebsamen May 2, 2003
Almost two thousand years ago, the Romans were marching towards Germania, intent on expanding their vast empire. In what is now Germany’s Teutoburg Forest, the region’s residents repelled the empire’s army, forcing the invaders to retreat southward for good. In the 19th century, the story became an important part of “the mythology of German nationalism”. Now, an exhibit at the Archeological...

Talk Tough, Talk Quiet

Anita Pratap May 1, 2003
War hawks in Delhi are eager to use America’s war in Iraq as a model for a preemptive strike on Pakistan. Arguably, the situations are somewhat analogous: there have been instances of cross-border terrorism, some Pakistanis have cooperated with Al Qaeda, and India does not fear Pakistan has weapons of mass destruction – it knows they’re there. Author Anita Prajab argues that all of these...

Why the Security Council Failed

Michael J. Glennon May 1, 2003
The UN was weak and irrelevant long before the divisive US-led war on Iraq made this painfully obvious, International Law scholar Michael Glennon maintains. He explains that Iraq is more a symptom of UN structural problems and changes in its geopolitical environment than a cause.. The UN was created to preside over a multi-polar world and now finds itself dealing with an unrivalled US hegemony...