osama bin laden killed Archives - Foreign Policy In Focus

Extending the War on Terrorism to Colombia: A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come

by Adam Isacson | Feb 6, 2002

The world’s third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid is the South American nation of Colombia, the focus of our never-ending war on drugs. Before September 11, this made a lot of people in Washington nervous. Now there is even more reason to worry. President Bush’s fiscal 2003 budget is requesting $98 million in new Pentagon training and equipment for the Colombian military, in a new initiative to transform the war on drugs into part of our global war on terror.

Porto Alegre: A Competing Vision

by Martha Honey | Feb 5, 2002

Porto Alegre, Brazil As the sixth and final full day of the World Social Forum dawns here on southern tip of Brazil, delegates prepare for a now-familiar routine of dawn to dusk forums, side meetings over meals, and impromptu protests in the foyer of the main campus building. Today’s events culminate with a mass march opposing the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), the United States’ main proposal for integrating the hemisphere under a single trade and investment regime.

Challenges for Peace Movement in Time of War

by Stephen Zunes | Feb 4, 2002

The tragic events of September 11 have created unprecedented challenges for the peace movement, anti-interventionist forces, and other progressive activists. For the first time in the lives of most Americans, the U.S. has found itself under attack.

Get Out of the Territories

by Graham Usher | Feb 1, 2002

As war raged in the occupied territories, peace flowered in Tel Aviv. On Saturday, February 16, 14,000 Israelis marched, sang peace anthems, lit candles, and demanded Israel “Get out of the territories, get back to ourselves!”

Reviewing the Korea-U.S. Summit: What Lies Beneath

by Brent (Won-Ki) Choi | Feb 1, 2002

Reviewing the Korea-U.S. Summit: What Lies Beneath By Brent (Won-Ki) Choi February 22, 2002

Industrial Unrest in China: A Labor Movement in the Making?

by Tim Pringle | Feb 1, 2002

“What the hell have you come here for? We’ve got nothing here! The mines have shut down and those bastards in their offices are corrupt to the bone! We had a strike, but there’s no way of controlling them. It’s not like the USA where everyone’s rich and you’ve got democracy. Shulan Town? It’s a joke.”

Food Supremacy: America’s Other War

by Devinder Sharma | Feb 1, 2002

As the American and allied military forces continue to operate in Afghanistan, the world is increasingly getting dragged into yet another war–the war for food supremacy. And like the war against terrorism, the battle for food superiority is also going to be long drawn. With the battle lines already sketched and with the back-up support of international financial institutions, this war is being aggressively pursued on the trade front.

Redressing Evil: Advice from South Korea

by Brent (Won-Ki) Choi | Feb 1, 2002

U.S. President George W. Bush’s upcoming trip to South Korea in mid-February is an opportunity for the Bush administration to demonstrate its new vision by explicitly support the “sunshine policy” of South Korea’s President Kim Dae-Jung–a policy that has led to significant reduction in tensions in one of the last remaining hotspots of the cold war. Over the past year, the Bush administration has demonstrated little of the flexibility and vision necessary to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula. Instead, the administration has been inconsistent and obstructionist.

A Despot in Washington

by Najum Mushtaq | Feb 1, 2002

A few days before his visit to the United States, President Pervez Musharraf said he was running a “fragile, soft” state. The western media, too, is awash with stories of a reformist general living dangerously in a volatile country. Yet, even rumors of a coup from within the ranks, or a popular Islamic insurgency, did not arise as he left Islamabad on Friday (February 8) for Boston to see his son, three days before the start of his official visit. On the contrary, the more days he gets to spend in the United States, the more secure his position seems to get at home.

An Enron War on Terrorism

by Jim Lobe, Lora Lumpe | Feb 1, 2002

If former Enron boss Kenneth Lay were put in charge of the U.S. war on terrorism, he would probably conduct it much the same way his fellow Texas oilman and beneficiary of Enron largesse, George W. Bush, has.