Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
defense

Military Contractors Spent Freely To Influence 2000 Election, Future Policy

by , | Jan 1, 2001

U.S. defense contractors were full participants in the last election cycle. Their contributions, totaling $13.5 million, were liberally distributed among both presidential campaigns, major party coffers, and House and Senate races, heavily emphasizing the members of both houses’ Armed Services Committees. This corporate campaign financing will help ensure that weapons industry interests will be well served in the coming year’s budget process.

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The Bush Administration and Human Rights

by | Jan 1, 2001

Human rights has been a central rhetorical foreign policy concern of successive U.S. presidents since the Carter administration. For all that, the international community remains deeply ambivalent about the American government’s self-appointed role as the world’s largest human rights organization. Many see self-interest behind U.S. claims to be upholding high moral principles, and they also see hypocrisy in the U.S. government’s reluctance to be bound by the same instruments it is so ready to apply to others.

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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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Africa: Off the Agenda?

by | Jan 1, 2001

Will Africa be “off the agenda” of a Bush administration? In the first week of Bush’s term, we can answer that question with a resounding no! It’s far worse than that. After four days, Bush in effect declared war on Africa and Africans.

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The Unanticipated Consequences of Policy Blindness: Why Even Belarus Matters

by | Jan 1, 2001

A dangerous blind spot in the incoming administration’s view of Russian affairs is its inadequate understanding of the significance of the newly independent states (NIS). The unanticipated consequences of such policy blindness are exemplified by developments in the 1990s in Belarus, formerly called Byelorussia—a country sandwiched between Russia and Poland—sharing a border with Ukraine to the south and with Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest.

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Latin American Policy and the Bush Administration

by | Jan 1, 2001

George W. Bush’s decision to make his first overseas trip to Mexico, in mid-February, has generated a great deal of speculation about what this could possibly mean for changes in U.S. policy toward Latin America over the next four years. It is clear that Mexico is vastly more familiar and comfortable for Bush than any other foreign country. In light of the questions raised about the former Texas governor’s foreign policy experience and competence during the campaign, it is hardly surprising that he would look first to the country immediately south of the Rio Grande to show he is up to the job.

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Beating About the Bush

by | Dec 1, 2000

For those who see George W. Bush as a dummy, the question is, who are his ventriloquists? Even those who claim to detect hitherto hidden reserves of intellect in the president-elect would not claim for him much in the way of interest in foreign policy, so the nature and views of his entourage are very important.

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The Coming Apathy: Africa Policy Under a Bush Administration

by | Dec 1, 2000

“There’s got to be priorities,” George W. Bush responded when asked about Africa in the second presidential campaign debate. Africa did not make his short list: the Middle East, Europe, the Far East, and the Americas. A Bush presidency portends a return to the blatantly anti-African policies of the Reagan-Bush years, characterized by a general disregard for black people and a perception of Africa as a social welfare case. Vice President Dick Cheney is widely expected to steer the younger Bush on most policy matters—especially foreign affairs. Cheney’s perspective on Africa in the 1980s was epitomized by his 1986 vote in favor of keeping Nelson Mandela in prison and his consistent opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa.

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