Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
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Japan: A New Security Posture Raising Concerns

by | Feb 14, 2002

In Japan, the Koizumi administration’s quick decision to send support ships and peacekeeping troops to the region reawakened a divisive debate over Japan’s use of military force abroad. Unable to effectively undertake promised economic reforms or achieve an economic recovery, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has seized upon a popular fear of terrorism and sympathy with U.S. suffering to pass domestic legislation permitting Japan’s first deployment of troops into a combat zone since World War II.

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The U.S. “War on Terror” and East Asia

by | Feb 1, 2002

On January 29, President Bush’s State of the Union speech served clear notice that the U.S. “war on terror” is coming to Northeast Asia. To date, U.S. media attention has focused on the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan, the worldwide manhunt for al-Qaeda leaders and supporters, and domestic security scares. U.S. policies in East Asia have been understandably overlooked. No longer. With the president’s upcoming visit to Japan, South Korea, and China, Bush administration policies in East Asia and their dangerous implications for regional security are now coming under closer scrutiny.

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Africa Policy Outlook 2002: Africa’s Priorities Ignored Due To Washington’s War on Terrorism

by , | Feb 1, 2002

By almost any measure, the war on AIDS is more important than the war on terrorism. Yet Washington’s fixation with the latter—still loosely defined—campaign threatens to crowd out attention to Africa’s priorities. And those priorities, from obtaining support for international peacemaking and peacekeeping, to canceling illegitimate debts and arresting the growing disparities between rich and poor in the world, to defeating the AIDS pandemic, are all equally global priorities.

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Diplomacy by Dereliction: U.S. Policy Toward Korea is in Disarray

by | Feb 1, 2002

President George W. Bush will visit Seoul for the first time in mid-February, as part of a major East Asian trip that includes visits to Tokyo and Beijing. Republic of Korea President Kim Dae Jung is urging Bush to give support to his “Sunshine Policy” toward North Korea and return to the policy of “engaging” Pyongyang pursued by the Clinton administration. A year after taking office, Bush has presided over a cacophony of mixed signals and diplomatic backsliding that has left U.S. policy toward Korea in disarray. But there is still a chance to revive crucial negotiations with North Korea that are deeply in the interest of American and Northeast Asian peace and security.

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Deconstructing George W. Bush: A Critical Analysis of the 2002 State of the Union Address

by | Jan 31, 2002

President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address on January 29, 2002 was the first in many years to focus primarily on foreign policy. Despite widespread accolades in the media and strong bipartisan support in Congress, a careful examination of the language and assumptions in the address raise disturbing questions about the direction of U.S. foreign policy under the current administration. What follows are some excerpts consisting of the majority of the speech addressing foreign policy issues and interspersed with some critical commentary. This should not be interpreted as in any way minimizing the very real danger from terrorism, or the need for a decisive response, nor to imply that Bush administration policy regarding terrorism and other foreign policy issues has been totally negative. Yet the failure to recognize the misleading verbiage and to recognize the dangerous implications of such words–however eloquent and reassuring to a nation that has experienced such trauma in recent months–will not only make us less safe from the threat of terrorism, but will deprive Americans of our greatest defense and asset: our freedom to question and challenge government policies that are not in the best interests of our country and the world.

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History of the Movement

by | Jan 25, 2002

I’m John Cavanagh, and I’m the director of the Institute for Policy Studies. And it’s great to be here with Alejandro, Thea, John, and Kristin, who between them have about a half a century of working on these issues. We at IPS have had a program on the global economy since 1975, founded by Orlando Letelier, and we’re certainly not planning to close it down any time soon.

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East Timor: U.S. Gave Green Light to Invasion

by | Dec 1, 2001

If Americans needed any reminding how, during the cold war, U.S. policymakers subordinated Wilsonian principles of self-determination to the larger anticommunist struggle, they should read several secret U.S. documents surrounding Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor obtained and released this week by the independent National Security Archive (NSA). The documents confirm that visiting U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave a green light to President Suharto for the invasion.

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Pearl Harbor Redux: The Warning Failure

by | Oct 1, 2001

One week after the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the president’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, told the press corps “This isn’t Pearl Harbor.” No! It is worse. Sixty years ago the U.S. did not have a director of central intelligence with 13 intelligence agencies and a combined budget of more than $30 billion to produce early warning of our enemies’ moves.

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