In The News

American Special Forces in Pakistan: Back to the Future?

Paula R. Newberg November 21, 2007
The reaction to the news that the US Defense Department has decided to send Special Forces trainers to Pakistan’s unruly tribal areas has so far been muted. But the irony of the decision and its long-term implication for the Subcontinent is hard to miss. In the eighties, the US administration poured money and weapons in Pakistan to train the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The...

Taiwan Squeezed as US and China Negotiate

Simon Tisdall November 20, 2007
The issue of Taiwan has been a thorny one since the Kuomintang’s relocation from mainland China in 1949. A sense of irredentism has been present on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, though now it persists predominantly on the mainland. The surge in China-US relations in recent years has complicated the Taiwan question even more. Though Taiwan has depended on deals with the US military in the past...

An Exit Strategy for Crooks and Dictators

Victor Mallet November 16, 2007
Cruel dictators and corrupt politicians who lose favor of their constituents often cling to power to escape retribution. Sometimes deals, including pardons or exile, are made with leaders who follow. “In an ideal world, criminals would be punished for their crimes without regard for their status,” writes Victor Mallet for the Financial Times, noting that political expediency often dictates the...

Exploiting Thailand’s Burmese Refugees

Jürgen Kremb November 12, 2007
The recent pro-democracy protests in Myanmar’s major cities overshadow the ongoing civil war raging near the border. Forcible conscription and the devastation of war have prompted an influx of refugees into neighboring Thailand. These illegal immigrants face formidable challenges, including corrupt police, unemployment and organized crime. Because of their illegal status, they cannot secure work...

Emergency for Pakistan – and the World

Ahmed Rashid November 12, 2007
The United States has long considered Pakistani President-General Pervez Musharraf an essential ally in its war on terror and provides more than $1 billion in annual foreign aid, most of which goes to the military for fighting terrorism. But Pakistan’s constitution prohibits Musharraf, who took office by coup in 1999, from serving another term as president while also serving as army chief. With...

Kosovo’s Independence Could Mean a New Conflict

Humphrey Hawksley November 5, 2007
After World War II, Kosovo became a province of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Kosovo, with its majority of ethnic Albanians, enjoyed near-autonomy until 1989 and the oppressive rule of Slobodan Milosevic. The Albanians resisted throughout the 1990s, atrocities ensued, leading finally to intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999. Yugoslavia splintered...

Old Gripe Brings Turkey Face to Face With Iraq

Dilip Hiro October 22, 2007
After World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, world powers carved up the Middle East. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres would have partitioned Turkey and created an autonomous Kurdistan, but Turkish nationalists rejected that plan. The Treaty of Lausanne that followed in 1923 granted independence to Turkey, but not for Kurdistan – and ethnic Kurds instead are spread among Turkey, Iraq, Iran and...