United States Archives - Page 8 of 16 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Negotiating and Looking Tough: The Mirrored Policies of the U.S. and Iran

by Farideh Farhi, Erik Leaver | Oct 3, 2006

September was a hopeful month for those interested in the de-escalation of tensions between the Unites States and Iran. The extension of a U.S. visa by the Bush Administration to the former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami despite vociferous conservative opposition was seen as a sign of possible change in U.S. foreign policy. In addition, a mixture of softer words employed by Iran’s current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN and in his many media appearances in the U.S. regarding Iran’s intentions in the region brought hope of possible movement in Tehran.

The Thai Coup

by Walden Bello, John Feffer | Sep 29, 2006

Even before the military ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on September 19, Thai democracy was in severe crisis. The country had suffered a succession of elected but do-nothing or exceedingly corrupt regimes. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which for all intents and purposes ran the country with no accountability from 1997 to 2001, further eroded the legitimacy of Thai democracy by imposing a program that brought great hardship to the majority. Thaksin stoked this disaffection with the IMF and the political system to create a majority coalition that allowed him to violate constitutional constraints, infringe on democratic freedoms, and using the state as a mechanism of private capital accumulation.

A Siamese Tragedy

by Walden Bello, John Feffer | Sep 29, 2006

The military coup in Thailand is the second high-profile collapse of a democracy in the developing world in the last seven years. The first was the coup in Pakistan in October 1999 that brought General Pervez Musharraf to power. There are some disturbing parallels between the two events. Both coups have been popular with the […]

Oil Trip

by fpifadmin | Sep 27, 2006

It is almost impossible to imagine, as we sit in a well-lit, fully functioning gas station on Main Street, USA, that a community blessed with oil riches under its soil could look as impoverished as Yenagoa in the Nigerian state of Bayelsa.

U.S. Ambivalence Undermining Historic Uganda Peace Talks

by Michael Poffenberger, Peter J. Quaranto, Emira Woods | Aug 10, 2006

Historic peace talks currently underway between the Government of Uganda and rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) are the best opportunity in over a decade to end Africa’s longest running war. Yet the Bush administration and State Department–distracted by unrest in the Middle East and priorities that lie outside of Africa–have been ambiguous about the U.S. position on the talks, undermining opportunities to help end one of the world’s worst humanitarian nightmares.

Who’s Arming Israel?

by Frida Berrigan, John Feffer, William D. Hartung | Jul 26, 2006

Much has been made in the U.S. media of the Syrian- and Iranian-origin weaponry used by Hezbollah in the escalating violence in Israel and Lebanon. There has been no parallel discussion of the origin of Israel’s weaponry, the vast bulk of which is from the United States.

Plan for Withdrawal

by Erik Leaver | Jan 10, 2006

After nearly three years devoid of serious discussion in Washington about Iraq, the floodgates opened when Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. — a conservative Democrat who originally supported the war — called for withdrawing U.S. troops at the earliest “practicable date.”

The Earthquake and the U.S. Response

by Erik Leaver, Shehzad Nadeem | Oct 18, 2005

The massive earthquake of October 8, 2005 in South Asia has assumed truly horrific proportions, killing upwards of 40,000 people, leaving 50,000 injured, and affecting more than four million people.

U.S. Leads the World in Sale of Military Goods

by Frida Berrigan | Oct 3, 2005

As insecurity mounts from Najaf to New Orleans, more weapons and high-tech military equipment are flowing into some of the globe’s most vulnerable and war-torn regions.