News Abroad

The Lies of Islamophobia

by John Feffer

The Muslims were bloodthirsty and treacherous.  They conducted a sneak attack against the French army and slaughtered every single soldier, twenty thousand in all.  More than one thousand years ago, in the mountain passes of Spain, the Muslim horde cut down the finest soldiers in Charlemagne’s command, including his brave nephew Roland.  Then, according to the famous poem that immortalized the tragedy, Charlemagne exacted his revenge by routing the entire Muslim army.

Why Do the French Keep Striking?

by Robert Gildea

On 14 July 1789 Louis XVI was brought news of the fall of the Bastille. “Is it a revolt?” he asked. “No Sire,” his adviser replied, “it is a revolution.” This autumn

Resolving the China-Japan Conflict Over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands

by Wada Haruki

On September 7 Japanese patrol boats intercepted a Chinese fishing trawler near Kubashima, one of the Senkaku [Chinese: Diaoyu] Islands in the East China Sea. After it repeatedly rammed the patrol boats in attempting to escape, the fishing boat was detained and its captain arrested and charged with interference in the execution of official duties. The incident would come to have enormous repercussions, shaking up Sino-Japanese relations.The Senkaku Islands are claimed by Japan a

The Travails of Modern Islam

by Daniel Pipes

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.It occurred to me that I should try and fit what I know into the mission of this organization, so I will try something new.  It will be a certain level of abstraction and I invite you in the Q&A to become far more specific.I am a historian of the Muslim world and, in addition to the day-to-day issues that come up, I look at this civilizational unit as a whole.  That's what I'll do now.To start with, the Islam

The President and Religious Pluralism

by Ian Reifowitz

America is at war with Islam.  At least that’s what some have declared.  President Obama has countered that in fact we are at war with a specific group of radical fundamentalist Muslims.  More profoundly, however, he has repeatedly defined Americanness itself as the antithesis of a fundamentalism that feeds on a clash of civilizations and cultures.At Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan on March 28, Obama contrasted the concept of a pluralistic democracy represented by the U.S. with al-

How Many Nuclear Weapons Does the U.S. Government Need?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

A good case can be made that the U.S. government, the first to develop nuclear weapons, would be much better off today without them.  They fail to de

A Loyal Retainer for Capitalism in East Asia

by R. Taggart Murphy

Sixty-five years ago, the United States emerged from the Second World War as the undisputed hegemon of world capitalism.  But within a generation, neither the American will nor the American ability to continue managing the global capitalist order could be taken for granted.  This essay will argue that the key to understanding the repair and continued re-enforcement of American economic and financial primacy since the system-shaking tremors of the 1970s can be found in the postwar exp

New Social Media’s Mark on the Historical Struggle for University Autonomy in Guatemala

by Heather A. Vrana

On August 9, 2010, a few dozen students from Guatemala’s national university stood under the banner of a group called the Estudiantes por Autonomía / Students for Autonomy (EPA). Students arranged bright green traffic barricades to block both entrance gates of the Universidad de San Carlos (USAC).  They occupied the campus for fifty-four days, through August and into September, despite circling police helicopters and threats of expulsion, until early October when representatives of the E

The Continuing U.S. Military Presence in Japan

by Saito Mitsumasa

…Is it really possible that the F-16 [Fighting Falcon], which represent[s] the sole aerial attack force of the U.S. Air Force in Japan, [will] soon vanish from the scene?  Seeking an answer, I queried sources in the U.S. departments of state and defense, the U.S. military in Japan, the Japanese ministries of defense and foreign affairs… everyone I know who was connected with U.S.-Japan relations. But the answer was “No.”  One person connected to the U.S. base in Misawa [in

Why Don't Britain's Leaders Pray in Public?

by Luke James Reader

On September 25, the British Labour Party elected Ed Miliband its twenty-third leader.  This result may have appeared surprising to American observers for four reasons.  For seasoned watchers of British politics, Miliband’s very election proved astonishing.  Firstly, he won by less than 1 percent of the vote, defeating the favorite, his older brother David, in a cont

India’s High-Stakes Foreign Policy

by Deepak Tripathi

President Barack Obama’s forthcoming visit to India in November comes amid a noticeable increase in tensions in U.S.-Pakistan relations and a favorable climate for Washington’s ties with India.  His visit to Chi

The Enduring Usefulness of the British Monarchy

by Lee P. Ruddin

The British monarchy has filled many a column of print lately.  Documents disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the Queen attempted to use the state poverty fund to heat Buckingham Palace while the Royal Household complained about the inadequacy of the government’s £15 million grant for the upkeep of royal palaces.Accused of having “contempt” for ordinary people by the anti-monarchy group Republic, campaigners have called f

Public Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free World

by Lawrence S. Wittner

One of the ironies of the current international situation is that, although some government leaders now talk of building a nuclear weapons-free worl

Scapegoating War Crimes in Af-Pak on Drugs

by Jeremy Kuzmarov

It might not be Reefer Madness redux, but the blame being put on drugs for civilian deaths in Afghanistan today has that same air of h

Against All Expectations, Commonwealth Games About to Begin

by Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

After months and weeks of speculation, in the face of dozens of press reports gleefully recounting all the stumbles and failures, despite several big-name athletes declining to attend, the Commonwealth Games are on track to start as scheduled on October 3 in New Delhi.I have to admit that I was among the pessimists. In mid-September, I looked out a tour bus window and realized that the overpass we were driving on in the middle of Delhi didn’t have a guardrail.  A row of traffic

Korean War Traumas

by Heonik Kwon

Soi dau is a familiar expression for people of the war generation in the southern and central regions of Vietnam (the regions that comprised South Vietnam before 1975). The term soi dau refers to the Vietnamese ceremonial delicacy made of white rice flour and black beans.  Used as a metaphor, it also conveys how people of this region experienced the Vietnam War (1961-1975).  In the latter context, soi dau refers to the turbulent conditions of communal life d

Legacies of War: The Korean War – 60 Years On

by Han Kyung-Koo

The Korean War, which began with North Korea’s surprise invasion of South Korea on Sunday, June 25, 1950, lasted for three years.  The hostilities ended with the signing of an armistice agreement in July 1953.  This war broke out only five years after the Korean Peninsula had been liberated from Japanese colonial rule, and only three years after the establishment of separate North and South governments, in a nation divided by foreign powers.  The war’

Why is the West So Islamophobic?

by Farjana Mahbuba

I first met this particular professor at a postgraduate gathering.  I was a fresh PhD student and a new arrival in Australia to boot—my ears were not yet used to the Aussie accent.  I tried to hide myself in the corner during the morning tea break, but this professor found me.  “Hi there!  I just heard that you are from Bangladesh?”  “Yes,” I replied weakly. I’d never seen someone so happy to meet a Bangladeshi.  She guided me to another corner where two professors were having a

Fear and Loathing in Erdogan's Turkey

by Hakan Ozoglu

September 12, 2010 saw the approval of a referendum to amend twenty-six articles of Turkey’s constitution.  Although these articles appear to ameliorate the undemocratic elements in the constitution, prepared by the military after a coup in 1980, the amendments caused considerable controversy in Turkey.  The decisive margin (58 percent to 42 percent) boosted the government’s confidence in dealing with the opposition; however, it also stoked secularist fears that the governme

Sixty-Five Years Later, The Roma Nightmare Continues

by M. Benjamin Thorne

They were arrested for being a “social menace,” forcibly sterilized for posing a “racial threat,” and deported to concentration camps for slave labor, where thousands died of exhaustion, hunger, and disease.  They suffered physical abuse, rape, and torture; they were shot by Einsatzgruppen in the Soviet Union; and gassed in Auschwitz. Sixty-five years after the Holocaust, Europe’s Roma continue to face persecution seemingly unthinkable in free, de