Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
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Bush Faces Challenges on the Korean Peninsula

by , | Mar 1, 2001

The Bush administration faces challenges from allies and adversaries alike in East Asia. The recent submarine incident and rising anti-bases sentiment in Okinawa have put the U.S.-Japan “special relationship” on rocky ground. The war of words with Beijing about human rights and its relations with Iraq suggests that the Bush team’s downgrading of China to the status of a “strategic rival” has already accentuated lines of division in the region.

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Colombia: Rules of the Game

by | Feb 1, 2001

When the U.S. and Colombia meet on the soccer field in Miami this Saturday, the rules are clear, the time is fixed, the game is officiated, and one team will win. In contrast, the U.S. is playing a far different game in Colombia: there are no rules, no referee, a maze of different ‘teams,’ and no clear end. The playing field is a battlefield. No one wins; everyone loses.

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Ethiopia-Eritrea Disengagement Proceeds Slowly, Civilians Watch & Wait

by | Feb 1, 2001

Two months after Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a pact to end their two-year border war, an agreement to move ahead with its implementation has finally been ironed out. Ethiopian forces occupying positions inside Eritrea began to pull back last week, and the 4,200 UN troops brought here to monitor the truce are now deploying to the contested frontier. A spokesperson for the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea today said that the withdrawals are taking place on schedule and are expected to be complete by February 24. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of war-displaced civilians remain in camps behind the lines, waiting to see if the truce will hold.

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Just What Is “GUUAM” Anyway?

by | Feb 1, 2001

The GUAM formation (Georgia-Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Moldova) had its origin in the 1996 round of talks implementing the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe. The four countries found they had a common opposition to the stationing of Russian weapons on their territory. GUAM became GUUAM when Uzbekistan joined in April 1999.

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Sharon’s Israel Needs Tough Love

by | Feb 1, 2001

The election of the far-right Ariel Sharon as prime minister of Israel, while not unexpected, has sent shock waves through the Israeli peace movement. His participation in war crimes, his overt anti-Arab racism, and his refusal to endorse the already inadequate concessions of ousted prime minister Ehud Barak significantly dim the prospects of peace with Israel’s Arab neighbors.

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The Trials and Tribulations of China’s First Democracy: The ROC One Year After the Victory of Chen Shui-bian

by | Feb 1, 2001

One year after Taiwan’s first democratic transfer of political power from the long-ruling KMT, the island’s political system has quickly taken on many of the most illustrious characteristics of American democracy: presidential victory by plurality, intra-party conflict, impeachment talk, sex scandal, and legislative gridlock. Yet, Taiwan is in a far different position than the United States; it exists in a precarious international limbo, and it has an exceedingly short democratic history. Consequently, although Taiwan’s prospects for democratic consolidation seem good, its new president faces special challenges in his quest to ensure Taiwan’s continued international security and domestic prosperity.

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CIA: The Need for Reform

by | Feb 1, 2001

Melvin A. Goodman <Goodmanm@ndu.edu> is professor of international security at the National War College and a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. A former senior Soviet analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, he is the author and coauthor of six books on Russian and American security issues and has written for numerous publications. His most recent book, The Phantom Defense, will be published by Praeger Publishers; his most recent article, “The Politics of Getting it Wrong,” appeared in the November 2000 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

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Paternal Legacies

by | Jan 1, 2001

There is a touch of poetic justice for George Bush the Younger in the current state of affairs in the Persian Gulf. Bush takes the White House after Saddam Hussein’s flamboyant success in making a shambles out of United Nations weapons inspections and in the midst of his audacious campaign to unravel what remains of UN economic sanctions against Iraq. Even other Persian Gulf countries have moderated their positions toward Saddam in light of his ostentatious and highly popular condemnation of Israel’s violent retaliation against the new Palestinian Intifada. What might this mean for the future of Kuwait and the other Arab gulf states?

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