In The News

Genocide Prevention: 60 Years of Abject Failure

Eric Reeves February 6, 2008
Genocide is a horrific crime, condemned throughout the world since the Holocaust. But the world still struggles to prevent genocide, even 60 years after passage of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, writes English professor Eric Reeves, in the Christian Science Monitor. Perpetrators elude punishment and condemnation by escaping media attention or...

Questions for Al Qaeda

Yassin Musharbash January 16, 2008
Perhaps the US presidential campaign has snatched too much global attention. The second in command of Al Qaeda offered to collect questions from friends and foes on four Islamic web sites for one month, starting December 16. “As it builds its Web community, al-Qaida is apparently also looking for user-generated content,” writes Yassin Musharbash for Spiegel Online. The questions will undoubtedly...

An Empowered Middle East – Part II

Humphrey Hawksley January 14, 2008
The Middle East has great economic potential, with rich resources, a young population and a location central to three continents. But the regional quest for enhanced prosperity requires stability, trust and security. Subsiding violence in Iraq contributes to regional security, largely because of extra troops inserted by the US in recent months and a coordinated pragmatic approach from US...

US Courts Consider Legality of Laptop Inspections

Adam Liptak January 11, 2008
Travelers often lug laptops with them, and the US government claims that inspecting the computers is no different than checking suitcases. But privacy advocates and some academics and business people are increasingly concerned, supporting searches only when there is reasonable suspicion. A lone judge has weighed in on the case, adding that information stored on a computer is an extension of one’s...

What’s Your Consumption Factor?

Jared Diamond January 3, 2008
The average citizen of a wealthy nation consumes at a rate 32 times that of the average citizen of a poor nation, and a rising human population will present major problems if people consume at levels on display in the wealthiest nations. High consumption levels exacerbate environmental devastation, resource shortages, waste and other social problems. Citizens of the poorest countries are fully...

Qaeda Network Expands Base in Pakistan

Carlotta Gall December 29, 2007
More than six years after the US declared a global war on terror, terrorism – in the form of the Al Qaeda network – continues to take root in Pakistan. The Pakistan government accuses the terrorist organization of assassinating Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan and a courageous voice on the dangers of religious extremism. “The expansion of Pakistan’s own militants and their...

The Atlantic Becomes a Little Wider

Richard Haass December 21, 2007
Some analysts suggest that recent elections in Europe, combined with the 2008 presidential race promising new leadership for the US, will improve transatlantic relations. Think again, warns Richard Haass, president of the Council of Foreign Affairs, in an opinion essay for the Financial Times. Stable alliances require a measure of predictability, and Haass writes that “The 21st-century world is...