In The News

In EU, Hope Dims for Iraqi Refugees

Mariah Blake April 24, 2008
The US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent insurgency have produced an estimated 4.7 million refugees. One Swedish town alone, Södertälje near Stockholm, has accepted about 6,000 asylum seekers in the last five years – more than the entire United States. In all, Sweden – which had no role in the war – has accepted 49,000 people who met the conditions required by the European Union’s...

How to Win in Iraq Without Losing to Iran

Dilip Hiro April 11, 2008
The US approach on stabilizing Iraq has often been criticized as being too cavalier for failing to take into consideration the region’s history or political and religious make-up. US foreign policy contributed to the current catch-22, contends author Dilip Hiro. As a result, the US confronts two basic choices: ongoing costly intervention, which could trigger increasing discontent among US voters...

Time to Bury a Dangerous Legacy – Part III

Jonathan Schell March 19, 2008
Proponents of nuclear weapons suggest that eliminating the arsenals of world powers could endanger the world. Such analysts contend that nuclear weapons deter threats, preventing both nuclear and even conventional war while providing political stability. Author Jonathan Schell challenges those arguments in the third and final article of a three-part series that analyzes the dangers of nuclear...

How to Buy a Gun in Darfur

Daniel Pepper March 10, 2008
The Darfur region of Sudan is home to a series of interconnected conflicts that blend genocide with large-scale rebel armies fighting both the Sudanese and Chad governments. Investigative reporter Daniel Pepper went to Darfur in 2006 to find out how the United Front for Democracy and Change (FUCD), a rebel force seeking to overthrow Chad’s regime, obtains its weapons and equipment. He discovered...

Chavez Picks a New Fight, With Colombia

Peter Wilson March 4, 2008
Nationalistic economic policies have led to shortages of staples including milk and eggs, and high inflation rates in Venezuela, the highest in South America. Colombia President Álvaro Uribe and Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez have squabbled over both rebels and a recent free-trade pact between Colombia and the US, yet to be approved by Congress. After the killing of a Colombian rebel...

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...

Why Iran Didn't Cross the Nuclear Weapon Road

Dilip Hiro December 11, 2007
A US national intelligence estimate – a consensus of 16 intelligence agencies – recently concluded that Iran discontinued its nuclear-weapons program due to “international pressure.” Author and Middle East analyst Dilip Hiro examines the chronology of events and argues that Iran started and ended its nuclear-weapons program for one reason: the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq....