News Abroad

The Other War in Pakistan

by William Lambers

Defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida is only one part of the struggle to build peace in Pakistan. Humanitarian aid for over two million people who have been displaced by the fighting is equally critical to building stability in the tro

Kicking the Nuclear Habit: Why We Need a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

by Lawrence S. Wittner

With President Barack Obama and other world leaders now talking about building a nuclear-free world, it is time to consider whether that would be a good idea.Six reasons for supporting nuclear abolition are particularly cogent.The first is that nuclear weapons are morally abhorrent.  After all, they are instruments of widespread, indiscriminate slaughter.  They destroy entire cities and entire regions, massacring civilian and soldier, friend and foe, the innocent and the

Obama's Diplomatic Speech in Cairo Mangled History

by Lawrence A. Peskin

President Obama went to Egypt to create common ground between America and Islam. In the process he whitewashed America's early, troubled history with the Islamic world.In his speech at Cairo University the president noted that "Islam has always been a part of America's story." He cited Morocco's early recognition of American independence in 1778. He also reminded his audience of the U.S.-Tripoli treaty of 1796-97, which denied that the United States bore any "enmity

The Specter of Hiroshima in an Age of "Virtual Nuclear States"

by Robert Gellately

The UN-backed discussions on nuclear non-proliferation held recently in New York ended without producing an agreement. The head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei warned that b

Four Obama Copycats Aim to Get Iran's Presidential Crown

by Hamid Tehrani

If Obama is a brand, then Iranian presidential candidates are its top consumers. Some of the candidates have directly borrowed Obama’s campaign slogan or method and all, it seems, grasp the importance of Internet usage in this campaign. Their attempts to apply Obama’s presidential campaign’s slogan, promises and strategy in the Islamic Republic sometimes receive caricatured dimensions. The Iranian presidential election is not free. Only four faithful servants of

On Jimmy Carter's False Apartheid Analogy

by Gil Troy

Jimmy Carter has appeared on “Meet the Press,” Larry King, Charlie Rose, and elsewhere making his latest book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, a best-seller. Apparently, Carter’s publisher postponed the publication date until mid-November so as not to distract Democrats with a campaign controversy about their ex-President’s anti-Israel prejudices. By alleging that Israel practices Apartheid, Jimmy Carter’s title reflects a sloppy and nasty form of historical analogizing seeking to deleg

China Holds the Key to the North Korea Problem

by Adam Chapnick

As the international community struggles to respond effectively to the missile tests recently launched by the North Korean government, critics have blamed the Security Council of the United Nations for failing to deter aggression and preserve world peace. That blame is misplaced. In this case, responsibility for controlling North Korea, and the ability to do so, falls squarely on China. The way that the United Nations was originally designed explains why, today, China alone h

Sectsploitation: How to Win Hearts and Minds in the Islamic World

by Timothy R. Furnish

A rational discussion of Islam’s causal role in American “overseas contingency operations”—the erstwhile “global war on terror”--or the multitude of “man-made disasters” besetting the modern world has become almost impossible in the current hyper-partisan American political climate.

The School Lunch That Saved Europe

by William Lambers

United States and British planes undertook a heroic mission into the Nazi-occupied part of the Netherlands during the final days of World War II. But their mission had nothing to do with striking the German army. Instead, the

The History of Torture Shows It Does Not Work

by Robert W. Thurston

Recent comments on torture pay inadequate attention to the history of the practice.  Observers have long noted that torture does not work; it does not elicit the truth, nor does it provide solid evidence of a

What Withdrawal from Iraq Will Not Look Like

by Brendan O'Leary

In thinking about America's prospective withdrawal from Iraq, it is helpful to think comparatively about what it will not be like, and what it should not be like. Four comparative paradigms are strongly inappropriate (Vietnam, Germany,Japan, and Korea), but they are instructive. A last paradigm, Bosnia-Herzego

Is Cuba Going to Be Let Back into the Organization of American States?

by Don Bohning

Forty-seven years after its suspension from the Organization of American States, the clock comes full circle next week when hemisphere foreign ministe

Can a Comic Book About MLK Change the Middle East (At Least a Little)?

by Noah Mendel

The American Islamic Congress (AIC), a multi-national civil rights organization, announced in March that it had published an Arabic translation of an old comic book celebrating the life and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. First published in 1956, amidst the Civil Rights movement, “The Montgomery Story” centers around the events of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Spearheaded by Dr. King and famed-activist Rosa Parks, the bus boycott successfully put an end to segregati

William Appleman Williams: Fifty Years After His Book on the Tragedy of American Diplomacy

by James Livingston

IFifty years ago, William Appleman Williams published The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, the emblematic text of “revisionist” diplomatic history.  That anniversary was celebrated by a conferen

Why Piracy Remains a Threat

by Lawrence A. Peskin

The United States dodged a bullet when American sailors and Navy Seals foiled Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. But pirates never give up easily. The possibility that they will capture more Americans ther

How Did Obama Do in Latin America?

by Alan McPherson

President Obama announced that he did not attend last weekend’s Summit of the Americas in Trinidad to talk about the past but “to deal with the future.” Yet the past was all around him, and he made remarkable use of it. “We must learn from history. But we can’t be trapped by it,” he said. In the hands

Rational Pirates? The Hidden Economics of History’s Most Notorious Criminals

by Peter T. Leeson

Few characters in history inspire as much fascination or mystery as pirates. For this reason pirates make perfect fodder for pop-culture, which typically

How Feasible Is Obama's Nuclear Disarmament Agenda?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

Not since Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, decades ago, talked of abolishing nuclear weapons has an American president pledged to work toward that goal.  Yet, speaking in Prague on April 5, 2009, President Barack Obama proclaimed "clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."Furthermore, Obama linked his announcement of this lofty aim with a discussion of specific actions that his administration would

Dealing with Somalia’s Piracy Problem Won't Be Easy

by Paul J. Sullivan

The US Navy is clearly deserving of kudos for saving Captain Phillips of the Maersk Alabama in the treacherous waters off of Somalia. Maybe this is a sign for a new phase in the world’s relations with the pirates off the non-country of Somalia. One might have the whimsical feeling to call this “gunboat diplomacy,” but how can you have diplomatic relations with a state that does not exist. Will gunboat diplomacy work? Somalia has been a grating problem for the w

Are the Somali Pirates Like the Barbary Pirates?

by Lawrence A. Peskin

At a recent press confrence, Secretary of State Clinton pointed out that piracy in Africa is not a new problem for the United States.  In a similar vein, the New York Times noted that the rece