President Bush’s State of the Union address comes as near to a declaration of war on Iraq as is possible without the guns beginning to fire. It rehearsed all of the reasons for an attack relating to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, made no mention of oil, and made it clear that the U.S. was prepared to go to war with minimal international support if need be.
Over a decade of persistent repression in Uzbekistan has left the country’s political life under the firm control of President Islam Karimov. No political party or movement that can be classified as in opposition to Karimov’s administration is able operate openly today.
Sixteen months after the attacks of 11 September, what is the status of al Qaeda and what are its prospects? Earlier articles concluded that the organization remained active, was retaining a strategic sense of direction, and, among other things, trying to draw Israel into a wider conflict. While all of these points remain pertinent, it also makes sense to attempt a more general analysis, not least in the light of the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan.
The potential benefits of trade can be an important engine for economic growth and poverty reduction. However, only when trade is built upon solid institutional foundations are these benefits typically realized. There is a widely shared frustration by many working in Central America that these conditions may be lacking. The region remains critically vulnerable to recurrent economic and ecological shocks. After a decade of post-civil war and economic reforms that have already lowered trade barriers, eliminated state subsidies for many producers in the region, and increased trade, broad-based development in the region remains elusive. Poverty has not been reduced, and income inequality has increased–as have unemployment and underemployment–and the World Food Program reports that 8.6 million Central Americans (1 in 4) continue to suffer from hunger or food insecurity. Meanwhile, social violence has reached epidemic proportions, now approximating the worst political violence of the civil wars years in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. In desperation, more Central Americans set out every day to attempt the dangerous entry into the United States.
A U.S. military spokesman reported on January 13th that Special Forces soldiers had discovered hundreds of pounds of explosives buried in feed sacks in the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad. The discovery comes on the heels of a decision by the American commander in Afghanistan to expand security- and reconstruction-related missions beyond Kabul, the capital. This shift will improve Afghan stability, but critics say it stops short of a full solution.
The victory of the liberal Roh Moo-Hyun in the December 19th South Korean presidential elections has been presented in the western media as a source of future tension in South Korean-U.S. relations. Roh, a long-time liberal and human rights advocate, when compared to his more conservative opponent, Lee Hoi-Chang, does represent a more challenging partner for future South Korean-U.S. relations. Roh’s stated aims include continuing the “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with North Korea, renegotiating the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) for the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, and maintaining a more independent foreign policy in international and regional affairs. However, it is difficult to argue that anything Roh does could place more tension on the South Korea-U.S. relationship than the Bush administration’s unilateral foreign policy.
The Bush administration has enlisted India in its campaign against the newly formed International Criminal Court. On December 26th representatives of both governments signed an agreement, which provides that neither country will surrender persons of the other country to any international tribunal without the other country’s express consent. Of all the sixteen countries that have signed such bilateral agreements with the U.S.–most of them under pressure or threat–India is by far the most significant.
The victory of the liberal Roh Moo-Hyun in the December 19 South Korean presidential elections has been presented in the Western media as a source of future tension with Washington. Roh, a long-time liberal and human rights advocate, when compared to his more conservative opponent, Lee Hoi-Chang, does represent a more challenging partner for future South Korean-U.S. relations. The new president’s stated aims include continuing the “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with North Korea, renegotiating the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) for the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, and maintaining a more independent foreign policy in international and regional affairs. However, it is difficult to argue that anything Roh does could place more tension on Seoul’s relationship with Washington than the Bush administration’s unilateral foreign policy.
NATO’s first summit in Eastern Europe was held in the same city where the Warsaw Pact was buried. “Prague, once the victim of the Warsaw Pact, became the city where the Warsaw Pact met its end as an instrument of the cold war,” Czech President Vaclav Havel proudly claimed in 1991.
Diplomatic moves by the United States to gain support for the termination of the Saddam Hussein regime have intensified in the past two weeks. One aspect of this has been the request to NATO for backing for a military campaign; more important has been a series of discussions between the U.S. and its regional allies in the Middle East and the Gulf.