In The News

A Moment to Seize with North Korea

Donald Gregg June 22, 2005
Last Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il issued a statement indicating his willingness to return to six-nation talks and reverse his nuclear program. In this commentary for The Washington Post, Donald Gregg and Don Oberdorfer analyze the import of Kim's message. According to the authors, Kim's statements present "a golden opportunity to take the US offers to the one and only...

Europe Turning Cold on Turkey

Yigal Schleifer June 20, 2005
The fallout of the referendum fiasco on the European Union’s expansion plan is coming to light . A report in the Christian Science Monitor says that all references to Turkey joining the EU have been removed from an upcoming European Union summit declaration. There is now a general consensus that opposition to Turkey’s EU membership was a factor in the French and Dutch rejection of the proposed...

Change in Syria?

Mohamed Sid-Ahmed June 17, 2005
At a long-awaited regional congress this week, Syria's Baath Party met to consider political and economic reforms. The Syrian leadership has faced much criticism for many aspects of its regime. Human rights abuses, assassinations and continued intelligence operations in Lebanon, and a shutdown of participatory government are some of the charges that the international community is laying at...

The Insidious Wiles of Foreign Influence

June 16, 2005
Since the end of the Cold War, and now with George W. Bush in office, the US has grown notably resistant to foreign legal influence, writes The Economist. According to this commentary, Washington exhibits a striking ambivalence with regard to international law: While the Bush administration advocates global rules on trade, finance, and international investment, it also opts out of other...

Peace the Only Option for Aceh

Aguswandi June 16, 2005
The prospect of achieving sustainable peace in the tumultuous Indonesian region of Aceh is being undermined by comments from politicians denouncing the ongoing peace negotiations in Helsinki. While the majority of Acehnese support the talks as a step towards ending violence, these voices of dissent ignore the positive results and denounce foreign assistance for fear that Aceh will become the...

A Truckload of Nonsense

George Monbiot June 15, 2005
The recent agreement by seven of the G-8 nations to cancel impoverished countries' debts to the World Bank and the IMF requires debtor nations to eliminate corruption and promote private-sector development. A close analysis of the past, however, reveals that corruption has seldom been a barrier to foreign aid and loans. In fact, corporations in first-world countries often take advantage of...

For Democratic Change, Deal with Moderate Islamists

Amr Hamzawy June 15, 2005
In its push to spread democracy to the Middle East, the West has favored secular liberal movements in countries around the region as their partners of choice. These alliances make sense on an ideological level, as many Arab liberals and non-religious parties wholeheartedly espouse the Western democracy model and Enlightenment political philosophy. However, such movements tend to lack popular...