In The News

Cashmere Moves on, and Scotland Feels a Chill

Allan Cowell March 27, 2004
For decades, the Scottish Borders region has sustained an active cashmere industry, producing lusciously soft scarves and sweaters for high-end consumers. Now, however, Chinese textile manufacturers are displacing Scottish producers from large swaths of the market. Chinese producers "are having their day as far as manufacturing goes," says one industry analyst, "and they have the...

Terror Fight to Intensify

William Pratt March 26, 2004
Official anti-terror plans emerge in Germany following a report that three Moroccans suspected of planning the Madrid bombings had lived in Germany. The three men had previously been identified by German officials as “potentially violent Islamists”. With the fear that Germany could be used as a potential base and/or target for future terrorist attacks, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has begun...

'We should remain calm'

Eckart Lohse March 26, 2004
In an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, interior minister Otto Schily says Germans know they are living in a "threatened community." While terrorism poses an "epochal threat” which will last for a long time, Schily says he doesn't want people "to lead lives filled with fear and worry, and to lose their zest for life." He claims the...

Europe vs. America's Operating System

Grant R. Mainland March 26, 2004
"Europeans and Americans talk trade or antitrust when the real issue is the legitimacy of American power," writes Grant Mainland, a research specialist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In this commentary, Mainland compares Microsoft's monopoly position in software to the US monopoly on global military power. Just fined US$613 million under European antitrust...

Straw: Turkey is EU 'Acid Test'

Tom Happold March 23, 2004
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw claims that Turkey's membership in the EU will prove that Islam and the West are not locked in an inexorable "clash of civilizations." According to Straw, liberalism's values of pluralism, tolerence, the rule of law, and human rights are universal. If Turkey meets the right criteria, Straw hopes that negotiations for EU membership will get under...

Schröder Condemns Job Offshoring as Unpatriotic

Bertrand Benoit March 23, 2004
Outsourcing, a vital component of global capitalism, appears to have met a staunch new critic in Germany. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder says Germany companies who move work to Eastern Europe and Asia are "unpatriotic". The cheaper labor of these regions, however, offers a strong economic incentive for German companies trying to compete globally. Nonetheless, says this article,...

Keep the Ban on Arms for China

Roger Cliff March 22, 2004
15 years ago, in the wake of the Tiananmen Square violence, the US and nations that now make up the EU agreed to an arms embargo towards China. Until their human rights record improved, China should not be supplied with weapons technology, argued the European and American states. Now, EU nations are facing a call from China to eliminate the "outdated" embargo in order to cement their...