In The News

Coral Reefs off the Florida Keys Get Protection from Large Ships

November 14, 2002
The advent of globalization has increased international trade and the volume of shipping which supports that trade. More than 40 percent of the world’s commerce passes through the Florida Straights, damaging its fragile coral reef ecosystem. This area has already been weakened through pollution, over fishing, and coastal development. To combat these negative effects, the Bush administration has...

U.S. Raids Foil Plots to Send Arms to Al Qaeda and Others

Eric Lichtblau November 7, 2002
The DEA and the FBI now, more than ever, share a common enemy: terrorism. Federal agents recently thwarted two deals that included the exchange of drugs for weapons believed to be destined for Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. In the first deal, two Pakistanis and an American were in the process of exchanging heroin and hashish for four Stinger antiaircraft missiles that were allegedly...

Latin American Countries Skeptical of U.S. Trade Agreement

Edmund L. Andrews November 1, 2002
In an effort to rouse support for a pan-American free-trade agreement, President Bush expanded the number of products that Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia could export to the United States without paying tariffs. In addition, 140 million dollars would be given by the United States to defray the costs of administering any pan-American trade deal. However, most Latin American countries are...

Leftist Brazilian Victor Moves to Calm Nervous Markets

Larry Rohter October 29, 2002
Brazil is suffering a severe economic crisis. In the past year, the value of Brazilian currency has fallen by 30 percent, and the people are hungry and frustrated. Many now look to President-Elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to guide their country out of dire economic straights. da Silva ran a campaign full of populist rhetoric – inspiring to Brazilians, but frightening to foreign investors who...

Don't Rock the Boat

Nayan Chanda October 23, 2002
When George W. Bush meets Jiang Zemin in Texas this Friday, he is likely to find a skeptical but polite interlocutor who will make sure that Iraq does not get in the way of an improving relationship between China and the United States. This will reflect China's cold calculus of its immediate interests in a U.S.-dominated world. For both economic and political reasons, China's leaders...

White House Cool to North Korean Offer of Talks

Reuters October 21, 2002
Although the US sent a new shipment of fuel oil to North Korea two days after the latter admitted having a secret nuclear weapons program, the White House says it won’t "reward bad behavior." Unnamed Bush administration officials implied that the 1994 accord with North Korea agreed to give North Korea nuclear reactors and fuel oil in exchange for shutting down weapons-related...

North Korea's Latest Nuclear Gambit

Andrew Mack October 21, 2002
This essay focuses on the consequences and future implications of relations between North Korea and the United States given the North Korea's surprise admission of a clandestine nuclear weapons program via enriched uranium. It argues that the United States is in a lose-lose foreign policy situation due to potential accusations of hypocrisy (vis a vis its foreign policy with Iraq) and...