In The News

One of the worst blows to the fragile system of international law happened recently, writes Yale professor and international security expert Paul Kennedy, and it made no headlines. On June 2, Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan murdered five members of the Nobel Prize winning organization, Doctors Without Borders. The atrocity prompted the withdrawal of remaining volunteers, ending 24 years of aid...

In May graphic evidence of American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners was presented to the worldwide media, causing an uproar and leading to charges of abuse that have reached into the highest levels of American policymaking. With the world's attention focused on Iraq, say the authors of this article in the UK's Guardian, similar – if not worse – abuses have been carried out in...

Newly-reelected Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian delivered an inaugural address this week titled, "Paving the Way for a Sustainable Taiwan." In the speech, Chen assessed the progress of Taiwan's democratization. He said, "Democratic advancement occurs only through constant and gradual endeavor, one step at a time." Chen described Taiwan's new electoral processes,...