In The News

Libyan Arms Deals Come Back to Haunt Europe

David Böcking February 25, 2011
In Egypt, a military that refused to shoot fellow citizens made all the difference in overturning a regime that had held on to power for more than 30 years. But other rulers and military leaders – such as Libya’s – are less stricken by conscience. For more than a decade, Libya was subject to UN sanctions. Those were lifted in 2003, and Europe ended its arms embargo in 2004. Since then, the nation...

Revolution U

Tina Rosenberg February 24, 2011
Following Egypt’s uprising, attention focused on links between protest organizers in Cairo and the Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS, in Serbia. The group was formed by leaders of the movement that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Online exchange of information and strategy from Serbia helped the Egyptian movement. Yet CANVAS has worked in more than 50 countries...

Pakistan and the Bomb

Bruce Riedel February 21, 2011
The international community's questions about Pakistani control over its growing nuclear arsenal rankles the nation. Military leaders maintain control over weapons, while democratically elected civilian leaders have nominal authority, explains Bruce Riedel, senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy in the Brookings Institution, and author of a new book, “Deadly Embrace:...

China to Block UN Report on North Korean Nuclear Capability

February 21, 2011
A Chinese expert was part of a team that prepared a report for the UN Security Council on North Korea violating sanctions, according to a Reuters article, yet China plans to block the report. The team expressed concerns that the impoverished nation may transfer technology – obtained illegally from Pakistan – to other secretive regimes. “North Korea almost certainly has several more undisclosed...

Huawei in Challenge to US

Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Kathrin Hille February 17, 2011
Social media sites – like LinkedIn or Facebook – make it easy for companies to find customers, employees, suppliers and more. But they also help regulators uncover troublesome connections. Such a case – with US regulators perusing LinkedIn and accidentally discovering that China’s telecom giant Huawei had purchased, without government review, interest in a California firm that makes cloud...

Foreign Islamists Get Little Support in Egypt

Farnaz Fassihi, Matt Bradley February 10, 2011
Iranian and Hezbollah clerics have tried to co-opt the Egyptian opposition movement, suggesting that their brand of Islamic fundamentalism and 1979 revolution were influences. But the suggestion is outlandish, considering Iran’s brutal crackdown on its own young protesters seeking political and economic reforms more recently in 2009. The Muslim Brotherhood and Sunni clerics swiftly rejected the...

Can the Internet Tame Governments? – Part I

James Cowie February 9, 2011
Debate rages in the West about whether the internet in authoritarian states is a tool for winning freedoms or another device for control. In the wake of Egypt’s mass protests emerged the first case of a government’s attempt to sever an entire nation from internet access. This YaleGlobal series explores governments and the internet, and which is the taming force. The first article, written by...