In The News

Chinese Will Move Waters to Quench Thirst of Cities

Erik Eckholm August 27, 2002
The Chinese have a history of monumental construction projects. Now the Beijing government is planning one of the largest industrial endeavors in history in which millions of gallons of water from the Yangtze River basin will be rechanneled over one thousand miles to parched northern cities. While the need for more water in the north is unquestioned, how Beijing will overcome the heavily...

Chinese Communists Set for Policy Shift

James Kynge August 26, 2002
China plans to initiate several wealthy entrepreneurs into the central committee of the Communist Party on November 8. Because the Communist Party outranks all other governmental structures, its new members may be able to wield significant power. China’s president is spearheading the move; he believes, “The party should represent advanced productive forces, advanced culture and the broad...

Asian Tigers May Slay Hollywood Dragon

Tom Plate August 26, 2002
In recent years, film industries in India, China, and several other nations have begun to challenge Hollywood’s hegemonic rule of the global movie market. While the claim has often been that American films, like many other products of globalization, lead to cultural erosion in the rest of the world, the rise in popularity of foreign productions in the United States could symbolize globalization...

Central Asian University Aims to Train Region's Next Leaders

Barbara Crossette August 26, 2002
The new Central Asian University will soon educate students of this multilingual region in a language that goes beyond borders—English. The liberal arts and strong science curriculum contrasts with the specialized Soviet curriculum offered in the past and will be preceded by English lessons and computer-training courses. Some have questioned the choice of language, arguing that Russian is already...

Prolonged Economic Slowdown Prompts IT firms to Change Track

Jennifer Lien August 26, 2002
For the first time, Hewlett-Packard has used a company other than Intel to supply them with microprocessors for one of their business PC’s. In these times of “economic belt-tightening,” IT companies have begun to branch out in an effort to corner other markets. Dell recently released a “white-box” no-name PC onto the market to be sold through small retailers at especially low prices....

US Coordinates Drug Sweep in the Balkans and Central Asia

David Binder August 25, 2002
In an era in which technology has made physical distance seem irrelevant, drug enforcement officials must find newer methods to compete with the increasingly flexible and multinational drug trade network. In the summer of 2002, the Drug Enforcement Administration, working with 25,000 officials in 15 nations, managed to prove the effectiveness of multinational operations in combating the trade in...

Bush Scales Back Steel Tariffs

Edmund L. Andrews August 23, 2002
American steel companies and their representatives in Congress called on President Bush to rescue their dying industry and increase steel tariffs this spring. He did so, infuriating the European Union, which then filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, arguing that the U.S. was violating free trade rules. Bush has tried to satisfy both sides, discreetly excluding some steel...