In The News

Victor Mallet November 16, 2007
Cruel dictators and corrupt politicians who lose favor of their constituents often cling to power to escape retribution. Sometimes deals, including pardons or exile, are made with leaders who follow. “In an ideal world, criminals would be punished for their crimes without regard for their status,” writes Victor Mallet for the Financial Times, noting that political expediency often dictates the...
Roger Cohen November 15, 2007
The United States attempts to exercise global leadership in a world that has changed dramatically in recent years. With the spread of new technologies to developing nations has come an explosion of information from sources other than Voice of America. With such a wide range of options and rapidly growing anti-Americanism, disaffected people in the Middle East and elsewhere see little reason to...
Ahmed Rashid November 12, 2007
The United States has long considered Pakistani President-General Pervez Musharraf an essential ally in its war on terror and provides more than $1 billion in annual foreign aid, most of which goes to the military for fighting terrorism. But Pakistan’s constitution prohibits Musharraf, who took office by coup in 1999, from serving another term as president while also serving as army chief. With...
Amelia Gentleman November 9, 2007
India and Pakistan have engaged in three wars and ample animosity since 1947, when the two nations achieved independence from Great Britain. But the relationship between the two nuclear powers improved since 2004, with the start of peace talks, and so India’s response to recent turmoil in Pakistan has been cautious. Constitutional crisis has erupted in Pakistan as General Pervez Musharraf...
Tufail Ahmad November 7, 2007
Many Muslim nations, including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia, decline diplomatic relations with Israel, and the president of Iran has gone so far as to call for eradication of Israel. Yet refusing to meet with an opponent is not statesmanship. Last August, a visit of Indian Muslims to Israel was the first of its kind, meant to nurture a connection based on democracy. Muslims in India have...
Paula Newberg November 6, 2007
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president and army commander, declared martial law on November 3, 2007, anticipating the country's highest court ruling that he may not hold those two posts simultaneously. Some analysts call this his second coup. By shutting down media, lining streets with soldiers, arresting opposition politicians, suspending rights, firing the chief justice of the...
Humphrey Hawksley November 5, 2007
After World War II, Kosovo became a province of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Kosovo, with its majority of ethnic Albanians, enjoyed near-autonomy until 1989 and the oppressive rule of Slobodan Milosevic. The Albanians resisted throughout the 1990s, atrocities ensued, leading finally to intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999. Yugoslavia splintered...