Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
“China’s Political Succession: Four Myths In The U.S.”

Israel’s Jordan is Palestine Option

by | May 1, 2001

In today’s complicated Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the political assumption that a Palestinian State is part and parcel of any future peace agreement is now a common realization that the U.S. and Israel have finally come to terms with. The U.S. administration, the Israeli press, and even the hawkish Israeli government, now openly make public statements to this regard. I do not question the fact that a Palestinian State is on the horizon, but I have serious doubts that the geographic location of this State is the same between the world’s conviction and that of the Israeli government led by Prime Minster Ariel Sharon.

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Thank You Mr. Sharon

by | May 1, 2001

The Jerusalem Post website reported, “IAF [Israeli Air Force] F-16 warplanes may have dropped munitions as large as 250 kilograms on their targets” (5/18/2001). Among these targets were a Ministry building, police stations, a TV station, and a prison–all in civilian neighborhoods in several Palestinian cities under Israeli military occupation for the past 34 years. The warped justification for Israel’s latest war crime is that it is a response to yet another Palestinian suicide bomber, who hours earlier took the lives of seven Israeli citizens in a shopping center in the Israeli City of Natanya.

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Walter Kansteiner: Assistant Secretary of State for Africa

by | Apr 1, 2001

Walter Kansteiner, Bush’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, was chosen for the post over well-respected foreign service professional Johnny Carson, who currently serves as U.S. ambassador to Kenya. Initial reports on Kansteiner have noted his background as a commodities trader and as an African affairs expert at the State Department and National Security Council during the first Bush administration. In 1991 Kansteiner received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award for work promoting privatization. During the Clinton years, he worked for the Scowcroft Group, a consulting firm headed by Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser and Kansteiner’s former boss in the Bush administration. Kansteiner has written occasional articles on Africa for The Forum for International Policy (http://www.ffip.org/), a center-right Washington think tank where Scowcroft is a resident trustee.

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The Key West Conference on Nagorno-Karabakh: Preparing Peace In the South Caucasus?

by | Apr 1, 2001

In early April the United States is hosting a nearly week-long meeting in Key West, Florida bringing together President Robert Kocharian of Armenia and President Heydar Aliev of Azerbaijan. This meeting is part of a continuing attempt to settle the conflict between the two countries over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. This region is an enclave in Azerbaijan settled by Armenians since the early nineteenth century, and from which the resident Azerbaijanis were chased during a war in the late 1980s.

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Assessing New U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan

by | Apr 1, 2001

President George W. Bush decided April 23rd to offer Taiwan the largest arms package since his father sold various warships and F-16 fighters to Taiwan a decade ago. Bush did deny Taiwan the most expensive and controversial items on Taiwan’s shopping list: four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers equipped with advanced Aegis radar systems. Bush did approve two other weapons systems that mainland China strongly protests: eight submarines and twelve P-3C Orion anti-submarine patrol aircraft (a different version of the same model involved in the recent spy plane incident with China). Also offered for sale are four older Kidd-class missile destroyers. Although these are not nearly as sophisticated as the Arleigh Burke-class, they are twice as big as any existing Taiwanese warship and much more capable than most Chinese destroyers. They would be a major addition to Taiwan’s navy.

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UN Veto Reveals Bush Administration’s Contempt for Human Rights

by | Apr 1, 2001

The U.S. veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling for the deployment of unarmed monitors to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip demonstrates the new administration’s contempt for human rights. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, which came before the Security Council on March 28 after five days of tortuous negotiations that moderated the wording of the original draft. Still, this was not enough for the U.S., which vetoed its first UN Security Council resolution in five years.

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The Death of Laurent Kabila

by | Mar 1, 2001

Recent events in the Democratic Republic of Congo could come from pulp fiction. There are murders, conspiracies, betrayals, red herrings, and high stakes–including diamonds, gold, cobalt, and petroleum. Unfortunately, this is no thriller, but a tragic reality. A country has been torn apart by its neighbors. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of its citizens have died, in addition to the refugees killed on Congolese soil.

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Women and FTAA

by | Mar 1, 2001

On January 6, the U.S. released summaries of its proposals for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would extend NAFTA-type rules to 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere (with the notable exclusion of Cuba). A month later, the New York Times issued a series of articles describing how NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) has changed the lives of poor families on the Mexico-U.S. border.

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