In The News

France: Waiting for Reform

Patrick Sabatier May 8, 2007
French voters have increasingly become aware that their country is at economic odds with the rest of the world: high unemployment rates, high levels of debt and massive social benefits reserved for a shrinking majority. Most candidates vying for president, and most of their supporters, recognize deep inside that such a system cannot be sustained amid intense global competition. So the French...

Investing: French Elections Test Attitudes Toward Globalization

Conrad de Aenlle May 8, 2007
Nicolas Sarkozy won election as president of France. Before the final vote, financial analysts pondered which candidate would produce the best financial climate for France. During the campaign, both candidates, socialist Ségolène Royal and conservative Sarkozy, had taken a firm anti-globalization stance – though globalization has enriched the French. French labor policies don’t wear well in a...

New Delhi's Delicate Balancing Act

Stanley A. Weiss May 3, 2007
As a thriving democracy, India has hundreds of political parties and is led by coalition governments. As a result, the party in power must please many special interests, not the least impoverished farmers who represent a majority, reports Stanley A. Weiss, founder of Business Executives for National Security. The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is trying to defeat multiple problems...

Malaysia Backpedals on Modernity

Sadanand Dhume May 3, 2007
A fundamentalist streak of Islam within Malaysia is coming into conflict with the flourishing civil society that has made the nation a model of peaceful and democratic development in Southeast Asia. Muslims in Malaysia, unlike their Hindu or Christian compatriots, are ultimately subject to strict Islamic law, known as sharia. In fact, the national judiciary cannot override a ruling by a sharia...

The Strange Death of Multiculturalism

Ian Buruma May 1, 2007
European society once was organized according to religion. People headed to neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and even jobs based on religious affiliation and word of mouth from fellow congregants. Muslims began immigrating into European communities after secularization took hold, and secular society became alarmed about a religious pillar rising alone in integrated communities. “In the end, the...

Against the Wall: The US Faces a United Iraq

Humphrey Hawksley May 1, 2007
The US still has a chance to deliver stability in Iraq, as hinted by widespread Iraqi rejection of a wall dividing Sunni and Shia neighborhoods in Baghdad, argues BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley. First and foremost, the US must focus on its fight with Al Qaeda. Also, the US must overcome any distaste for Islamist rule and embrace the Shias as the only viable, cohesive body with state-like...

Regime Change in the Arab World

Shlomo Ben-Ami April 30, 2007
The American-led invasion of Iraq was motivated, at least in part, by the desire to create a model state that would influence its Middle Eastern neighbors towards democracy. This did not happen, largely because the US policy of favoring pro-Western dictatorial regimes over hostile democracies did not end with the Cold War; therefore, the US has resisted the election of popular, yet threatening...