In The News

How Much Will India Endure?

Xenia Dormandy July 13, 2006
The rush-hour train bombing in Mumbai creates yet another impediment to peace between India and Pakistan. Political analyst Xenia Dormandy cites the dire need for Indian and Pakistani leadership to seek a peaceful resolution and to resist impulsive reactions when rogue groups cause havoc in one country or the other. While the “composite dialogues” launched between the countries three years ago...

Deadly Conversations

Gabriel Weimann July 13, 2006
One tends to tar the Islamic militants with the same brush of terrorism, and the internet is seen as the outlet for their propaganda and grisly videos. However, conflicting perspectives of Al Qaeda and other terrorist factions found on the web could be a valuable tool for understanding their motivations and strategies, thus enabling governments to develop effective counter-strategies and prevent...

Stop Hyperventilating, Start Talking

Peter Hayes July 11, 2006
North Korea’s missile test “was a strategic non-issue,” according to Peter Hayes, executive director of the Nautilus Institute. No major international constraints prevent the nation from testing missiles, with the North Koreans assuming that the Bush administration will never negotiate with them in good faith. Therefore, the decision to test the missile was a result of domestic factors inside the...

So You Think 7/7 Has Brought Britain and America Together? Think Again

Gerard Baker July 10, 2006
Gerard Baker, a British ex-pat living in the US, monitors the increasingly negative views of his countrymen towards the US. The British not only strongly dislike the Bush administration and its policies, but also target American society with their criticism. The British do not see President Bush as an aberration, but a symbol of American swagger. Since a lack of nuance is one of the...

Globalization and Muslim Identity Challenges and Prospects

Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk July 3, 2006
Providing five definitions, author Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk describes how most Muslims understand “globalization” as an ongoing and ancient concept that is in its most rapid stage of development. Using the theories of scholars such as Francis Fukuyama and Samuel P. Huntington, Abushouk chronicles historical clashes between what have been termed as “Western” and Muslim civilizations, as well as the...

Supreme Court Blocks Trials at Guantánamo

John O’Neil June 30, 2006
Protesters throughout the world have vehemently opposed the US indefinitely holding suspected terrorists in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba – and the US Supreme Court has lent some support to that argument. The court ruled against the US use of military tribunals to try detainees held in the Guantánamo prison, and in so doing, finally delivered the Bush administration from a legal limbo. In a 5-3 ruling,...

Don’t Forget Those Other 27,000 Nukes

Hans Blix June 20, 2006
Hans Blix is fully acquainted with both the successes and drawbacks of the current international system for policing nuclear technology. While the former chief UN weapons inspector recognizes that the instruments of nonproliferation – the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and international inspection – failed in cases such as North Korea and Libya, he cautions against abandoning these efforts in...