In The News

The Revolt of a Disappointed Generation

Manfred Ertel December 18, 2008
Greek youth have rioted for days in 20 cities and town, distraught about the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy and a society that offers limited opportunities for youth. The shooting unleashed anger about an inept, corrupt political system and spread quickly, explain Manfred Ertel and Daniel Steinvorth in Spiegel Online: “Sympathizers occupied the Greek consulates in Berlin and London,...

Iraq Needs US Shield for Democracy to Work

Humphrey Hawksley December 10, 2008
Iraq has stood strong against three outside ideological forces that attempt to sway its future: the brutal violence of Al Qaeda, the rigid inflexibility Iran-inspired and aided Shia conservatives, as well as the US neoconservative vision that anticipated an instant switch to democracy and privatization, explains BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley. With the approval of a US-Iraq bilateral...

Terrorists Attacking Mumbai Have Global Agenda

Ashley J. Tellis December 8, 2008
The British ended colonial rule in the subcontinent in 1947 by partitioning Pakistan and India, and the two have been antagonists ever since. Despite the tangled history of the two nations, the latest episode of a seaborne assault on 10 targets in Mumbai requires the world to take a fresh look at the nature of the terrorist threat, notes Carnegie Endowment scholar Ashley Tellis, who once served...

India’s Global Challenge

Nayan Chanda December 5, 2008
Though perpetrated by people linked with Pakistani groups, the nature of the Mumbai attacks show that India is not just connected with Pakistan; according to YaleGlobal Editor Nayan Chanda, “India’s fate is bound together with the rest of the world.” These attacks have for the first time brought India face to face with terrorists with a global agenda and a global impact. With these attacks, India...

From Great Game to Grand Bargain

Barnett R. Rubin December 4, 2008
Afghanistan and Pakistan are major trouble spots and a key source of terrorism, largely because of poverty, minimal education and economic opportunities, and training camps that blame the US, Israel and India for local problems. Yet sending more combat troops to the region won’t improve security, argue authors Barnett Rubin and Ahmed Rashid in an essay for Foreign Affairs. “U.S. diplomacy has...

Terrorism in India and the Global Jihad

Bruce Riedel December 3, 2008
India is no stranger to terrorist attacks. “The most dangerous terrorist menace comes from groups with intimate connections to the global jihadist network centered around Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda and its allies in the Pakistani jihadist culture,” explains Bruce Riedel in an article for the Brookings Institution. Extremists target India for its diversity – 80 percent Hindu and 15 percent...

Burma’s Nuclear Temptation

Bertil Lintner December 3, 2008
The landmark Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, put in force in 1970, has three goals: preventing spread of nuclear weapons or technology, promoting cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy and encouraging nuclear disarmament. Because disarmament has not been a priority, the technology has slowly spread, as individuals or nations sell expertise for money or influence....