In The News

Latin Lands Don't Share Powell's Priorities

Larry Rohter June 10, 2003
At the annual conference of the Organization of American States, US Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to leave behind all ideological differences between the North and the South over the war in Iraq. Instead, he emphasized the current US position in Latin America – to allow more free trade through prospective treaties like the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and to pressure...

Burmese Junta's Remedy: Crackdown

Seth Mydans June 10, 2003
Despite international condemnation led by the United States, the ruling generals of Myanmar are continuing to crack down on supporters of the democratic opposition. The crackdown began last week when the opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was attacked and arrested, prompting US President Bush to back a bill in Congress to enforce sanctions on Myanmar and cut off imports. The US protest of...

U.S.-Thai Immunity Pact "Flouts Sovereignty"

June 5, 2003
The U.S. has launched a world-wide campaign to persuade countries to sign agreements that would protect U.S. citizens from international judicial prosecution. The Thai government, led by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has planned to join the list of 34 countries who have signed such an agreement with the U.S. But the Thai Senate Committee for Foreign Affairs is opposed to the Prime Minister...

America's War on Terror Goes Awry in Pakistan

Ahmed Rashid June 4, 2003
Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia and Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, offers a scathing indictment of US foreign policy in South Asia, post-September 11. Rashid argues that US-led military action and victory in Afghanistan did not eradicate the Islamic fundamentalist ideology of the Taliban. Rather, Taliban's...

Asean Needs New Tools for New Threats

Amitav Acharya June 4, 2003
Though the interdependency inherent in globalization renders all member nations of ASEAN increasingly vulnerable to external threats, this same inter-dependency must be drawn upon if these challenges are to be met effectively, says this article in The Singapore Times. The author, deputy director of Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, states that financial volatility,...

George Bush's Aqaba lesson – Jethro's 'The Man'

Rami G. Khouri June 4, 2003
In this opinion piece from the Jordan Times, the author offers some advice to visiting US President George W. Bush. "You would do well to remain humble in Aqaba when you're advising the local Arab and Israeli Semites about how to achieve good governance, because this is the place where it all started some three and a half millennia ago," he writes. The region is steeped in...

Hands-on Diplomacy

June 3, 2003
Although tensions remain between the US and many of its European allies, it appears that US President George W. Bush is slowly backing away from the notion that American might makes right, says this Mercury News editorial. Despite continued unilateral action in Iraq, Bush has begun utilizing diplomacy to achieve his foreign policy ends in other areas, including courting China and Russia's...