In The News

China: The Missing Member at the G-8 Table

Jeffrey E. Garten June 3, 2004
China's key position in the world economy is increasingly obvious. A slew of indicators, from car usage and steel output to population size, shows that China cannot be ignored. Yet, writes Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean of the Yale School of Management, China will not be attending the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Georgia. Americans and others should wake up to China's importance for even...

Beijing's Social Contract is Starting to Fray

Minxin Pei June 3, 2004
Marking the anniversary of Beijing's crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protest movement 15 years ago, China scholar Minxin Pei writes that the Chinese Communist Party's hold on power is not sustainable. The regime has been fortunate, he says, to have achieved such unprecedented economic growth and prosperity since 1989. But the party's 'neo-authoritarian' development...

An Empire of Denial

George Monbiot June 1, 2004
The American 'empire' may be in denial, but it certainly doesn't need to become more assertive, says author George Monbiot. In this article in the UK's Guardian, Monbiot takes on historian Niall Ferguson to argue why American imperialism is not a good thing. When Ferguson praises the achievements of the British empire and urges the US to follow in its footsteps, Monbiot says...

US Nation-Building Abroad – Part III

Ahmed Rashid June 1, 2004
After over 30 months of active engagement in Afghanistan, the US military is still not able to guarantee peace and security within the country's borders. Osama bin Laden, whose presence in Afghanistan occasioned the US intervention in the first place, still remains elusive. In the final installment of a multi-author series on America's nation-building efforts, journalist and author...

Kerry Vows to Rebuild Alliances, Confront Terrorism

Jim VandeHei May 28, 2004
The United States political climate is heating up as the November presidential election nears. Presumptive democratic candidate for president John F. Kerry viscerally attacked current president George W. Bush about matters of foreign policy yesterday, saying actions taken over the course of Bush's term had undermined a legacy of cooperative US leadership that had stood for decades. Kerry’s...

US Nation-Building Abroad – Part II

Fawaz A. Gerges May 28, 2004
The Abu Ghraib prison, once the stage for atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein, has been turned into a symbol of brutal occupation by a foreign force. The story of abuse by American soldiers broke at the worst possible time for the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, writes Middle East specialist Fawaz A. Gerges, in the second installment of a multi-authored, three-part series on US...

Looking After Number One

Abbas Ali May 28, 2004
The American occupation in Iraq has the Iranian government torn in two different directions: their obvious interest in guiding the shape of the neighboring government is at odds with not wanting to cooperate with the United States. Iran’s ties to Iraq are ancient and critical. Holy sites and burial grounds that are among the most sacred to Iranian Muslims are located in Iraq, and studies of the...