All Commentaries
Human Trafficking Policies: Ships Passing in the Night
Nearly every five to ten years the U.S. overhauls its immigration policies, sometimes giving illegal aliens a fresh start through legalization programs. What is novel about the current, serious discussion of a new illegal alien legalization program, is that it is taking place within the context of a much greater awareness of and concern over the expansion of human smuggling into the U.S. and around the world.
Who’s the Rogue State Now?
Hardly a week goes by that the United States declines to sign a world treaty on security or the global environment-or threatens to withdraw from one it has already signed.
U.S. Policy on the UN Conference Wrong
The United States, the self-described leader of human rights, effectively decided to boycott the UN conference against racism in Durban, South Africa. The U.S. could have made a strong, positive impression by sending its African-American Secretary of State, a descendent of slaves, and making a forceful stand against racism. Instead, it chose to send a low-level delegation.
Small Arms Trafficking in the Americas
The Bush administration may think that it has struck a blow in favor of the Second Amendment by attempting to sabotage the recent UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms. But U.S. obstinacy has consequences in all the Americas, most notably Colombia and the surrounding region.
A Costly U.S. Mistake on Germ Weapons
Once again, with critical global interests at stake, the Bush administration has blocked action by the rest of the world, this time on a vital treaty to monitor the ban on biological weapons. After nearly seven years of negotiations, what was intended to be the final session to complete the treaty ended last week in disarray. The Bush decision reverses a bipartisan drive to augment international biological weapon controls beginning with President Nixon and running through the Ford, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations. The reversal comes at a time when biotechnology is pouring forth powerful discoveries that could be misused to tailor new diseases for deliberate spread as weapons.
Democrats Grill Bush State Department Official from the Right
On July 26, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William J. Burns appeared before the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.
Death Squad Democrats
Death Squad Democrats By Stephen Zunes August 2001
Making a Statement in Durban
Some 200 nations are gathered in Durban, South Africa from August 31 to September 7 for the UN World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). Unfortunately, America’s official conduct leading up to the conference has not been its finest hour. Rather than deal with its own sorry legacy of slavery, discrimination, and racism, the Bush administration has chosen at the highest level to deny that historical matters and redress have any place on the agenda. It has withheld support and threatened to stay home.
NATO’s Credibility in Macedonia
In Macedonia peace remains elusive, despite the signing of a political compromise between Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian and Macedonian leaders on August 13. Relations between the country’s Macedonian and Albanian communities are on the verge of a complete breakdown.
Reframing the Debate on Missile Defenses
President Bush and his Republican colleagues should be congratulated for their call to end our vulnerability to nuclear weapons and to reach beyond cold war policies. The key question is: how should we end this vulnerability.