In The News

Aid Agency Quits Afghanistan over Security Fears

Ewen MacAskill July 29, 2004
The international aid agency Doctors without Borders has announced its decision to pull out of Afghanistan for security reasons. After 24 years of working in the country – the organization stayed through the Soviet-Afghan war, the rule of the Taliban, and American military intervention – the group is just now leaving because they say that the line between military and aid workers has been...

Seoul, Israel Differ on Korean Pilgrims

Choi Soung-ah July 28, 2004
It was only one month ago that South Korean citizen Kim Sun-il was beheaded in Iraq due to what his captors claimed to be participation by him and his company in Christian activities. So it may come as no surprise that South Korea’s government is concerned about the prospect of 3,000 Korean college students traveling to Israel. The students are traveling to participate in the "Jerusalem...

Knock-on Effects will be Global if Iraq Carries on Downhill

Daljit Singh July 28, 2004
According to this op-ed by Daljit Singh, a senior research fellow at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies, defeat, or perception of defeat, of America in Iraq could have destabilizing consequences for not just the Middle East, but all of Asia as well. If the United States, the global hegemon, is unable to restore peace to this one Middle Eastern country, its credibility as a superpower will...

Global Terror Threats Pose Great Local Challenges to First-Responders

S. L. Bachman July 27, 2004
With the advent of the global war on terror, local first-responders in many parts of the world have been charged by national governments with countering and mitigating the effects of terror attacks. Globalization scholar S.L. Bachman, however, argues that tragedies like the September 11 attacks on the US and the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia show that local police, firefighters, and medical...

The 567-Page Story of a Humbled America

David Von Drehle July 23, 2004
The 9-11 Commission’s final report concludes that officials in the American security apparatus, which was still emerging from Cold War thinking, were guilty of "failures of imagination" in dealing with potential terrorist attacks. The report spreads blame around, citing diplomatic, intelligence, bureaucratic, and military shortcomings and saying that “The institutions charged with...

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore Launch Coordinated Patrol of Malacca Strait

July 20, 2004
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore started joint naval patrols of the Malacca Strait on Tuesday. The move comes as a response to piracy in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, where approximately 50,000 commercial ships pass per year. Ships of the three countries will be able to enter each other’s territorial waters while in pursuit of pirates after obtaining official permission. Other...

Breaking for the Border

Salah Hemeid July 16, 2004
Some blame for the violence pervading war-torn Iraq rests in the hands of its neighbors, Iraqi officials claim. By facilitating or simply turning a blind eye to the religious militants who infiltrate Iraq in order to attack coalition and Iraqi forces, neighboring countries are undermining stabilization efforts. Iraq plans to step up pressure on its neighbors at an upcoming July 21 meeting in...