In The News

Obama’s Middle East Challenge – Part II

Dilip Hiro June 18, 2009
In this second part of a two part series on Obama’s Middle East challenges, author Dilip Hiro offers a pointed analysis of the Iranian election, detailing its flaws and its possible aftermath. Prior to the election, Iranian opinion polls suggested opposition candidate and former Prime Minister, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was leading incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Thus it came as a surprise...

Iran Cracks Down on Internet Use, Foreign Media

Christopher Rhoads, Geoffrey A. Fowler, Chip Cummins June 17, 2009
The disputed Iranian election has revealed Iran’s unique approach to internet censorship: controlling bandwidth and centralized blocking of sites. Compared with other countries that have used blanket censoring, either by shutting down access to the Internet or by disallowing certain websites, Iran’s approach is technically more complex and nuanced. Controlling bandwidth allows the internet to run...

Obama’s Middle East Challenge – Part I

Fawaz A. Gerges June 16, 2009
With President Obama’s ground-breaking speech in Cairo and the turbulent Iranian election, the Middle East is witnessing a quickening tempo of history. In the first of this two-part series on Obama’s Middle East challenge, Middle Eastern Studies professor Fawaz A. Gerges analyzes Obama’s speech, which he thinks could prove to be a pivotal moment in Middle East politics. At the least, it shows a...

Tunnels, Guns and Kimchi: North Korea’s Quest for Dollars – Part II

Bertil Lintner June 11, 2009
In this second part of our two part series on North Korea’s clandestine economy, journalist and author Bertil Lintner describes the demise of many North Korean-owned restaurants in Asia due to the economic crisis. Often titled Pyongyang, these restaurants once catered mainly to South Korean tourists, offering familiar food and entertainment. But the restaurants were thought to be money-laundering...

Tunnels, Guns and Kimchi: North Korea’s Quest for Dollars – Part I

Bertil Lintner June 9, 2009
Recent suggestions by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that North Korea could be re-listed as a state sponsoring terrorism raises the prospect of further tightening the economic noose around the regime. North Korea has got nuclear weapons but needs funds to keep the regime afloat. Yet, normal trading partners are loathe to transact with the pariah state subject to international sanctions. Hence...

War by Other Means: Econo-Jihad

Gabriel Weimann June 4, 2009
With President Barack Obama poised to deliver his long-awaited message to the Islamic world, Osama Bin Laden is back in the news. What his anti-US message does not say is that the global jihadi movement has been adjusting its tactics. Online chatter and public statements by jihadists, Al Qaeda and indeed Bin Laden’s own earlier words suggest there is a new twist to jihad: the economy. Author...

North Korea’s Nuclear Tantrum

Shim Jae Hoon May 28, 2009
North Korea’s decision to conduct another nuclear test is a new chapter in leader Kim Jong Il’s fight for recognition. But Dear Leader Kim’s gamble may push the US, South Korea, and Japan into taking a tougher stand rather than accede to further demands, according to Seoul-based journalist Shim Jae Hoon. Indeed, North Korea’s traditional supporters, Russia and China have responded differently....