global warming Archives - Page 8 of 16 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Yemen, the United States, and Al-Qaeda

by Stephen Zunes | Dec 1, 2001

There has been increasing attention on Yemen as the possible next major focus in the U.S. campaign against terrorism. Yemeni government forces have begun a crackdown against suspected Al-Qaida members and supporters, and a number of armed clashes have ensued. This comes just weeks after the November 26th meeting in Washington between President George W. Bush and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in which the Yemeni leader promised cooperation in the struggle against terrorism and President Bush promised additional security assistance to support that effort.

WTO Doha Ministerial: “We Take Over”

by Devinder Sharma | Nov 28, 2001

The day the World Trade Organisation (WTO) came into existence, on January 1, 1995, the Indian Express had carried a pocket cartoon on its front page. It showed two people walking amidst high rise buildings with huge billboards for popular multinational brands like Pepsi Cola, Coke, Philips, and McDonalds. The cartoon depicted one of the people walking down the street asking: “What does WTO stand for?” The other man replied: “We Take Over.”

Israelis Have a Choice

by Sam Bahour | Nov 26, 2001

Only three days have passed since U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Middle East policy remarks at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center for Political Leadership in Kentucky. Following Secretary Powell’s tribute to a key member in the audience, Kentucky’s Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, one of the fiercest opponents of the PLO and the Oslo Peace agreements, who together with Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein, published AIPAC’s (the Israeli political lobby in the U.S.) most recent initiative against the Palestinian Authority (Ha’aretz 22/11/2001), Secretary Powell boldly declared:

No One is Asking Ordinary Afghans What They Want

by Sayed Aqa, Deonna Kelli Sayed | Nov 21, 2001

Afghans are accustomed to “hoping for the best and expecting the worst.” The fragility of the current situation begs for great care and concern not to repeat past failures of Western policy. Great care must be taken in any steps in formulating a post-Taliban Afghanistan that includes an acceptable government as well as provisions for development and economic stability. Most importantly, efforts must reflect the wishes of ordinary Afghans inside of Afghanistan in order to gain credibility and long-term stability. Sadly, these sentiments seem to be ignored.

Plain Truths

by Sam Bahour | Nov 20, 2001

The mirage of positive movement in the deadly gridlock between Israelis and Palestinians continued today, uninterrupted by reality. Following U.S. President George Bush’s footsteps, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, during a major Middle East policy address at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, finally confirmed the addition of the word “Palestine” to the U.S. political lexicon. More significantly, Secretary of State Powell explicitly acknowledged, for the first time ever, that Israel’s illegal “occupation” of Palestinian land and people “must end.”

Placebo Peace Initiative

by Sam Bahour, Michael Dahan | Nov 18, 2001

The new Israeli “peace initiative” drafted by Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is no more than a placebo for internal Israeli consumption and consumption by the U.S. and Europe in response to their pressuring Israel for positive movement toward ending the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

International Investment Rules and the Environment

by Tom Barry, Lyuba Zarsky | Aug 1, 1999

Key Points

International competition for investment keeps environmental standards
"stuck in the mud."
With the right set of global rules, foreign direct investment could
be a channel for ecologically sustainable economic development.
In the coming decade, U.S. policy will be decisive in shaping International
investment rules.

The governance of international capital flows will be one of the key
environmental policy issues of the next decade. Along with labor, human
rights, and other social advocates, environmentalists are increasingly
demanding that international rules and corporate norms governing investment
explicitly embrace environmental and social performance goals.