In The News

Legacy of a Terrorist

William O'Malley January 16, 2007
Skilled terrorists are persuasive, strategic and analytical – and a good example of this is the Indonesian terrorist leader, Hambali, who has pursued his goal of bringing Muslim nations under Islamic rule. The operations chief of the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah, Hambali has been jailed by the US since 2003, but the vast network of recruits he had developed prior to his arrest continue...

Attack of the Zombie Computers Is Growing Threat

John Markoff January 12, 2007
Everyday, computer users at home and work receive dozens, even hundreds, of messages that range from the threatening to the nonsensical. Skilled hackers can secretly install programs on personal computers, banding them together to reproduce more unwanted messages. A recent menace is stock tips: Computers pass along free tips on penny stocks; then the ringleader, who has already purchased shares,...

Globalization Story Still Has a Long Way to Go

Daniel Altman January 10, 2007
Analysts may argue that globalization has passed its peak, while encouraging terror, crime and disease. But such analysis ignores the data, argues Daniel Altman who writes a globalization column for “The International Herald Tribune.” Exports of merchandise and trade in commercial services increased by 60 percent, value of global mergers and acquisitions increased by almost 40 percent, and...

Technology, Not Globalization, Is Driving Wages Down

Jagdish Bhagwati January 10, 2007
Confronting wage stagnation, US labor groups blame trade and immigration from developing countries. But economic research does not support the assertion that competition with developing nations reduces either wages or bargaining power, argues Columbia University professor Jagdish Bhagwali of Columbia University. If anything, ongoing technological innovations reduce the need for unskilled labor,...

A Fleeting Victory in Somalia

Jonathan Stevenson January 9, 2007
Somalia’s government re-took control of the capital from Islamist Courts Council. If the internationally recognized government, with the help from its US and Ethiopian supporters, does not quickly restore stability, “the conflict could become a regional war and a new field of jihad,” warns US Naval War College professor Jonathan Stevenson in an essay for “The New York Times.” The US has since...

Cold Comfort in Climate Change

Peter Fisher January 8, 2007
Extreme weather patterns, hitting all parts of the globe, up-ends the untested proposition that the world has at least a decade to control or adapt to climate change. Scientists and corporate interests could both be wrong about global warming, and the phenomenon could hit much sooner, much harder, than anyone has yet predicted. Environmental analyst Peter Fisher reviews the growing body of...

A World Free of Nuclear Weapons

George P. Shultz January 8, 2007
The Cold War started and ended one era of Mutual Assured Nuclear Destruction. But today small states and non-state terrorist groups with nuclear ambitions pose an unprecedented threat to the world security. The process of denuclearization should start with current nuclear states destroying their arsenal and signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, urges a group of high-ranking US officials who...