In The News

As It Wields Power Abroad, U.S. Outsources Law and Order Work

Andrew Higgins February 2, 2004
The US seems unwilling to face the hardships of maintaining a police force in Iraq. Instead, it has delegated the charge of keeping order to DynCorp, a multinational police contractor headquartered in California. DynCorp was subcontracted by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL, a division of the US State Department. Since 1994, the INL has dispatched...

Key Pakistani Is Said to Admit Atom Transfers

David Rohde February 2, 2004
Pakistan's official inquiry into the transfer of nuclear technology has yielded its most substantial finding yet. The founder of the country's nuclear weapons program, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted on Sunday that he had worked with Libya, North Korea, and Iran to help develop those countries' nuclear programs. The scientist said he had helped facilitate the transfer of designs...

Earthquake Narrows US-Iran Rift

Roshanak Taghavi January 30, 2004
A devastating earthquake in the city of Bam, Iran, may help to bring the United States and Iran closer together. Washington's offer to provide humanitarian aid to help over 40,000 quake victims marks the first open cooperation between the US and Iran in a quarter-century. According to this article in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly, however, Iran is skeptical about pursuing warmer relations in...

Ex-Arms Monitor Urges an Inquiry on Iraqi Threat

Richard W. Stevenson January 29, 2004
Dr. David Kay, who stepped down recently as the head of the Iraqi Survey Group, has announced that his organization has yet to find evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime indeed possessed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Instead, Kay expressed concern over the faulty intelligence that led the Bush Administration to justify a war against Saddam Hussein on the basis of such a program. The...

Turkey at the Crossroads

Mohammed Ayoob January 22, 2004
An Islamic party that supports Turkey's admission into the EU and the military that is lukewarm on troop deployment suggest paradoxes in Turkish politics. Mohammed Ayoob explains these paradoxes as the result of a general change in Turkey's political landscape and the particularities of the situation: the Kurdish insurgency has diminished, the military's influence has waned, and an...

Souring Relations

Ashraf Khalil January 16, 2004
The US effort to stabilize Iraq may not be going as planned, reports this article in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly newspaper. Several arguments have erupted of late that threaten to divide Iraq's Interim Governing Council (IGC) and the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority. Disagreements over appointees to the Council, disputes over the role of the United Nations in facilitating a...

Asia's Security Depends on Opportunities for All

Surin Pitsuwan January 15, 2004
Since 1997's economic crisis in East Asia, many countries in the region have struggled to cope not only with economic problems but also pressing security issues. Surin Pitsuwan, former foreign minister of Thailand, writes here that Asia's security problems are deeply intertwined with its economic and political woes. Education, nutrition, healthcare, and basic social services are all...