In The News

How Russia Lost the Moon

Sergei Khrushchev October 4, 2007
Sputnik’s launch 50 years ago marks a watershed event in human innovation. The Soviets anticipated success; for them, Sputnik was another marker in their continuous progression past Western technology. However, a little more than a decade later, the Americans became the first to reach the moon. Soviet efforts in the space race, argues Khrushchev, ultimately failed because of jealousy within the...

Iran’s Unlikely TV Hit

Farnaz Fassihi September 25, 2007
A popular television show reveals a big divide in Iranian society. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has questioned the historical basis of the Holocaust. But the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approves all programming for Iranian state television, including a well-funded show about an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man who loves a Jewish woman: The hero rescues his love from Nazis who would send her to a death...

Burma’s Growing Dilemma

A. Lin Neumann September 25, 2007
Burma has endured harsh military rule since 1962, which has devastated the economy, making the nation, since re-named by its rulers as Myanmar, an embarrassment among the fast-growing economies throughout Southeast Asia. Over the years, pro-democracy activists participated in various protests, only to face brutal crackdowns from the authoritarian government, with protestors facing long prison...

Google Urges UN to Set Global Internet Privacy Rules

Bobbie Johnson September 21, 2007
The introduction of Google Street View – photographic images of street-level landmarks and people – sparked concern from consumers about loss of privacy and abuse of the internet. Internet users around the world are already alarmed by poor security displayed by some internet banking and other online services, so technology companies, including Google, prod international organizations such as the...

Disowned by Mentor, Bin Laden Seeks New Pastures

Fawaz A. Gerges September 19, 2007
Just before the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden released a new videotape, in which he adopts a neo-Marxist posture, suggesting that mortgage debt, global warming, growing wage inequality and other ills are a result of greed from multinational corporations and politics of the West. “The capitalist system seeks to turn the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations...

Globalization and Cultural Diversity

Michael Lynton September 12, 2007
Those who oppose globalization are especially sensitive about loss of culture. But the American film industry does not contribute to the homogenization or Americanization of culture, argues Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “Instead of creating a single, boring global village, the forces of globalization are actually encouraging the proliferation of cultural...

How to Deal With a Falling Population

August 9, 2007
Between 1900 and 2000, the world’s population quadrupled, today standing at 6.5 billion people. But in some parts of the world – including the US, Europe, Japan, China – the fertility rate is lower then the replacement rate, causing experts to worry about a declining population. Institutions in developed nations, designed for growth, will be affected: For example, worker-retiree rations will be...