In The News

The Dragon and the Eagle Try to Get Along

November 21, 2005
The current relationship between the US and China is that of the world’s only superpower to a rapidly emerging rival. President Bush’s visit to Beijing this weekend revealed a cross section of potentially contentious issues and areas of possible cooperation. The major issues at play between the two countries can be classified as either security issues or issues of economic relationship. China’...

Shopkeeper Took on Coke - and Won

Jo Tuckman November 17, 2005
“I thought that they were going to be able to say to me, 'Look, ant, we stamped on you,” declared a triumphant Raquel Chavez, “I said I'd rather die with my dignity intact than be trampled on.” In a landmark case, the 49-year-old corner shop owner from a poor neighborhood of Mexico City brought charges against a Coca-Cola subsidiary and fifteen of its distributors in 2003. Following a...

Fox’s Performance Leaves Many Puzzled

Kelly Arthur Garrett November 15, 2005
Having failed to persuade other American leaders to move towards a pan-hemispheric free trade pact, Mexican President Vicente Fox now faces a political firestorm at home. Fox’s support for the Bush Administration’s free-trade stance has led to charges that he is an entreguista (a stooge or turncoat)—charges surely inflamed when Fox criticized the president of Argentina for “obeying Argentine...

Excessive Profits Erode Security

November 15, 2005
President Bush’s current tour of East Asia, specifically mainland China, challenges the scruples of his Administration’s prevailing foreign policy. Intensely critical of undemocratic regimes from Iran to North Korea, the US, in the case of China, has let political concerns wither on the wayside in the wake of its more pressing economic needs. An editorial in the Taipei Times warns of “the...

The Global Sweep to Mop Up the World's Oil Resources

November 14, 2005
China is scouring the globe for energy with which to fuel its economic boom. It has found much of that energy in Africa. Dangling promises of aid and development in exchange for access to oil, Beijing has forged partnerships with a growing number of countries south of the Sahara. The Chinese are not uneasy about dealing with African regimes considered too corrupt or too brutal by the West....

Musharraf's Islamist Challenge

November 10, 2005
Islamist groups have long used charity to boost their support amongst poor Muslims. They are now coming to the aid of the millions left homeless, injured, or hungry by last month's devastating earthquake in Pakistan—to great effect. Refugee camps run by organizations like Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan's most powerful Islamist group, feature far better medical care than their state-run...

Les Etats Unis devraient il vendre leur technologie nucleaire à l’Inde? Partie I

Robert Einhorn November 8, 2005