In The News

US-German Relations Undermined by CIA Flights

Bertrand Benoit December 5, 2005
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s trip to Europe this week was once thought especially important because it was an opportunity to build ties with Angela Merkel, whose right-of-center leanings were thought to make her a natural ally of the Bush Administration. Merkel, however, faces a firestorm of public outrage at the revelation that the CIA used Germany as a major hub in its secret...

Penchant For Secrecy Harming China’s Image

Frank Ching December 5, 2005
The Chinese government has a culture of secrecy. In the effort to protect delicate information, officials may lie. A perfect example was the explosion at the Jilin Petrochemical Company, and subsequent pollution of the Songhua River. A concerted effort to obscure the nature and magnitude of the disaster suggests that China has a problem. In the name of social stability, China has been lying...

Indonesian Democracy’s Enemy Within

Sadanand Dhume December 1, 2005
The common wisdom that democracy will help subdue the Islamic militantism is being questioned in Indonesia. While the world condemns the terrorists who have struck Indonesia in recent years, Sadanand Dhume reports that one of Indonesia's own political parties embraces those terrorists' Islamist ideology. The Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) shares the radical beliefs of Egypt's...

Barcelona Dreams

November 30, 2005
As the bloody war in Iraq sputters on, European Union leaders will meet in Barcelona this weekend to discuss a much different sort of attempt to extend Western influence in the Muslim world. The Barcelona Process is the name that was given, ten years ago, to the European drive to reform the Muslim countries of North Africa and the Middle East with a soft power approach. The EU is the most...

Anti-Americanism is One ‘Ism’ That Thrives

Roger Cohen November 28, 2005
The phenomenon of anti-Americanism is gathering steam around the world, to the point where it might be called the only current, pervasive, global ideology. Taking many forms, from radical Islamic activity to political satire, anti-Americanism is also directly linked to anti-globalization sentiment. US technology, and US firms that continually seek expanded markets are widely perceived as the...

Americans are Tuning Out the World

Alkman Granitsas November 24, 2005
As the world becomes accustomed to the American way of life, Americans are tuning out the rest of the world. US citizens have paid less and less attention to foreign affairs since the 1970s, writes journalist Alkman Granitsas. The number of university students studying foreign languages has declined, and fewer Americans travel overseas than their counterparts in other developed countries. News...

US-Vietnam: Discreet Friendship Under China’s Shadow

Raymond Burghardt November 22, 2005
After concerns that it had been distracted by the ongoing war in the Middle East, the Bush Administration is again focused on how to confront the rise of Chinese power in Asia. The US has found a strong bilateral relationship with Vietnam—one of Beijing’s longstanding rivals—to be instrumental in its approach to that challenge. US relations with Hanoi have come a long way since 1995, when they...