en Espanol: El Legado de Iglesias y el Futuro del BID
The Iglesias Legacy and the IDB’s Future
read more
Labor, Trade, & Finance
Torture Convention Needs Refining
The torture scandal rocking the U.S. and British militaries in the “war on terror” is shocking because of the serious breaches of international law involved. But it also exposes serious flaws and ambiguities in the international legal framework prohibiting and criminalizing torture.
The G-8 Debt Deal
Jubilee campaigns and debt cancellation advocates can be proud of their efforts. The Finance Ministers of the eight rich country governments as represented at the Group of 8 (G-8) have announced a deal on 100% debt cancellation of International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and African Development Fund debt for some impoverished nations.
Breaking the NPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) Stalemate: Japan Could Help
Deterring attack is usually cited as the main motivation for states to keep or acquire nuclear weapons. Yet today’s NPT stalemate involves both security and economic concerns. Nuclear and nonnuclear weapons states alike have associated nuclear-energy-generating capabilities with economic growth. By far the biggest problem that the NPT faces today is that nations have come to see and use it as a self-serving accord.
The Tsunami’s Aftermath: Reconstruction or Economic Opportunism?
“How agonised we are about how people die. How untroubled we are by how they live.”
– P. Sainath,“The Unbearable Lightness of Seeing,” The Hindu, Feb. 10, 2005
Bush’s Economic Invasion of Iraq
On Monday, Iraq’s National Assembly will release a draft constitution to be voted on by the people in two months. Since February, vital issues have been debated and discussed by the drafting committee: the role of Islamic law, the rights of women, the autonomy of the Kurds and the participation of the minority Sunnis.
Labors Foreign Policy Heads in a New Direction
Lost amidst the publicity about the breakup of the AFL-CIO at its convention last month were two events that, in their own ways, could point to a radically new foreign policy for American unions and workers.
Between Soldiers and Bombs
BASRA, IRAQ—The cracking towers and gas flares of the al-Daura oil refinery rise above the neighborhood on Baghdad’s outskirts that bears its name. On February 18, Ali Hassan Abd (Abu Fahad), a leader of the refinery’s union, was walking home from the Al Daura Refinery with his young children, when gunmen ran up and shot him.
The Limits of Cotton: White Gold Shows its Dark Side in Benin
According to World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, it is an “extraordinary moment in history”i for Africa. World leaders have made a big step towards debt cancellation. If celebrity involvement is any indication, this is the largest upwelling of public concern in Europe and North America for African poverty in recent years.
Recent Visit Highlights Double Standards in Bush Administration’s Pro-Democracy Rhetoric
The recent visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai to the United States highlighted the extent to which Vietnam remains wedded to the Chinese model of reform. Substantial, if often plodding, economic reform continues as an excuse for near nonexistent political reform. His visit also exposed the hypocrisy of the Bush administration which continued to call for widespread political reform in the Middle East in the same week it soft-peddled the need for the same reform in Indochina.