In The News

WHO Shoots Down Assembly Entry Bid

Melody Chen May 20, 2003
China again succeeded in mobilizing its allies to block Taiwan's bid for observership at the World Health Assembly (WHA), the highest decision body of the World Health Organization (WHO). Taiwan's bid was rejected for the seventh time in a row. This year, however, because of the Sars outbreak, many countries decided to back Taiwan up "for humanitarian sake." Taiwan officials...

The Essential Agenda

Osama El-Ghazali Harb May 16, 2003
Would granting aid to Iraq now appear as if Egypt and other Arab countries support the Anglo-American occupiers of Iraq? Most Arabs considered the war on Iraq unjustified, says this opinion article from Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly. But at the same time, they also agreed that Saddam Hussein needed to be brought down. In response to his critics, Egyptian scholar Osama El-Ghazali Harb argues that...

NGOs Must Fight Against Govt Attack

May 15, 2003
The Thai Government has come under criticism from local media for attempting to prevent collaboration between local non-government organizations (NGOs) and their international counter-parts. A series of exchanges between the central government and Thai bureaucrats indicate the government has made repeated attempts to undermine local NGOs, which it criticizes as being motivated by self-interest...

Return to Bilateralism

May 13, 2003
Is bilateralism the only viable option for India and Pakistan to resolve long standing disputes over territory? The answer, for now, appears to be yes, according to this editorial in India's The Hindu newspaper. Pakistan has insisted on third party mediation on Kashmir, a state claimed by both neighboring countries. In the current geopolitical situation, the writer says any third party...

Truck Bomb in Chechnya Kills at Least 36 and Wounds Scores

Steven Lee Myers May 12, 2003
The continuing separatist movement in the southern region of Russian territory certainly suggests that the breakup of the Soviet Union over 10 years ago is not quite over. Chechen rebels, fighting for independence from the Russian state, claim that the Russians are denying their right to sovereignty over their own nation, while Russian officials consider the rebels to be a fringe terrorist...

U.S. to Blame for Derailing Process of Denuclearisation on Korean Peninsula

May 12, 2003
As the new South Korean Prime Minister begins his first official visit to the United States, North Korea's Central News Agency released a report detailing the central role the United States has played and continues to play in the nuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The report is a scathing indictment of US foreign policy and holds the US solely responsible for undermining North and...

Under Global Spotlight, China's New Leaders Have to Reform

Susan L. Shirk May 12, 2003
China's integration into the global capitalist economy has been predicted by successive US presidents and others to be a necessary pre-cursor to expanded freedoms and democracy. Ironically, it may turn out to be a domestic Chinese issue – the fast-spreading Sars epidemic – that generates real openness and government accountability. China-scholar Susan L. Shirk explains that Sars has given...