News Abroad

Legal Policy for a Twilight War

by Philip Zelikow

After the 9/11 attack on the United States, the U.S. government adopted a different approach to defending the country against attack from the al Qaeda organization, its affiliates, and its allies. The new approach was fundamentally sound. Yet it was developed and implemented in a flawed manner, and these problems were then greatly compounded by the way law and lawyers were used to rationalize the policy and frame the debate. In 2006 the policy approach was greatly revised, though the ch

The Pope Acknowledges Reality

by Robert J. Miller

Pope Benedict has apparently, sort of, admitted the truth today about the forced religious conversions of the native peoples of the New World. But at the same time he did not repudiate the statements he made on this subject on May 13 as was demanded by indigenous leaders and by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez even accused the Pope of ignoring the “holocaust” that followed Columbus’s “discovery&rdq

Why Aren't We Seeing the End of the Communist Party in China?

by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

In the spring of 1989, giant crowds marched through the streets of China's cities, demanding an end to official corruption and more political freedom. Inspired by the spectacle of these dramatic demonstrations, foreign observers predicted that the days of the Chinese Communist Party were numbered. And yet, as we mark the 18th anniversary of the brutal June 4 Massacre, which put an end to 1989's student-led protests, the party remains in power. The party's own actions have helped it stay

Post-Weimar Russia? There Are Sad Signs.

by Andreas Umland

Since the publication of Alexander Yanov’s 1995 book After Yeltsin: ‘Weimar’ Russia (Moscow: KRUK; New York: Slovo-Word), a number of Yanov’s predictions for the post-Yeltsin period have come true. Above all, during the last years, sections of the Russian elite have adopted a paranoid vision of the outside, above all Western, world which, in the 1990s, had been a minority view held by the extreme right and paleocommunists. Whether this makes Yanov’s swee

Empire, Hegemony, and the U.S. Policy Mess

by Michael H. Hunt

The deepening plight of the Bush administration fits into a puzzlingly persistent pattern. The Vietnam-induced collapse of the Johnson presidency was followed by Nixon’s disgrace, dramatic reversals under Carter and then Reagan, and a dizzying search for a post-Cold War conceptual foundation under Bush senior and Clinton. These difficulties doubtless had their roots in the grand international role that Americans embraced in the course of World War II and the early Cold War. The initiatives

Should We Really Be Risking More Lives to Look for the Missing in Iraq?

by Thomas M. Hawley

The search for three American soldiers recently abducted in Iraq is following a familiar and tragic pattern. In the thirty-five years since the end of the Vietnam War, the United States has engaged in an extensive and costly search for service personnel killed in the conflict but whose remains were not recovered at the time of death. On April 7, 2001 a helicopter carrying a search team crashed in Vietnam, taking the lives of seven Americans and nine Vietnamese. Since the May 12, 2007 abductio

Pope Benedict: Ignoring Cultural and Religious Oppression in the New World

by Robert J. Miller

News reports demonstrate that Pope Benedict is ignoring history and the violent cultural and religious oppression of indigenous peoples around the world by European Christians. Speaking to Latin American bishops in Brazil on May 13, the Pope cited the "rich religious traditions" of Indian people but added that their ancestors were "silently longing" for Christ and seeking God "without realizing it." Pope Benedict further demonstrated his misundersta

Memorial Day: A Day for Remembering -- and Accepting Responsibility

by Todd DePastino

On Memorial Day, Americans pause during picnics, parades, and softball games to remember those who died fighting our country's wars.  It's rarely a day for apologies.  Yet, this year, we ought to consider apologizing for the Iraq War, a war of choice that has jeopardized our security, diminished our international standing, thrown Iraq into chaos, and, not incidentally, killed or wounded over 27,000 American soldiers. Apologizing to those soldiers can't undo the damage tha

The Lesson from Cambodia that Policymakers Are Ignoring

by Taylor Owen and Ben Kiernan

United States bombings in Afghanistan have "given a propaganda windfall to the Taliban.” [1] Is history repeating itself? In 1975, Pol Pot’s genocidal Khmer Rouge forces took power in Cambodia after a massive U.S. bombing campaign there. New information reveals that Cambodia was bombed far more heavily during the Vietnam War than previously believed — and that the bombing began not under Richard Nixon, but under Lyndon Johnson.

What Does Kanan Makiya Think Now About the Iraq War?

by Thomas Padilla

In the deluge of death tolls that flood the headlines from Iraq, it is quite possible that few outside of academic circles remember just who Kanan Makiya is; even fewer may be more than dimly aware of his Iraq Memory Foundation . As such, HNN has decided to present a refresher of sorts on the man, the history of the project and its current state. Kanan Makiya is currently the Sylvia Hassenfeld Professor of Islamic and Middle East

The Doctor Is In (Yet Again): Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Latest Communiqué

by Timothy R. Furnish

Over the weekend another tape from the al-Qa`idah second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, hit the airwaves. A point-by-point analysis follows: 1 al-Zawahiri opens by praising All

France Views America: Friend, Rival, or Both?

by Jeremy Cameron Young

On May 6, the French elected a new president. At stake was not only the future of France but of the strained French-American relationship. The winner, conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, proudly proclaims the United States "the greatest . . . power in the world." His opponent, Socialist Segol Royal, countered that the French "will not go down on our knees before George Bush." At first blush, their disagreement seems rooted in current events -- the Iraq war and the gro

Why We Should Be Frightened that the Story of Tamerlane Seems So Relevant

by Justin Marozzi

However bad things seem in the Middle East, things once were much worse.

A New Empire of the Mahdi? Libyan and Iranian Pan-Islamic Agendas

by Timothy R. Furnish

On Easter weekend 2007, two important Muslim leaders issued proclamations which may prove supremely portentous for the Global War on Terror (GWOT). The more publicized announcement was by Libya’s leader Mu`ammar al-Qadhafi, who called for “the establishment of a second Shi`ite Fatimid state in North Africa.”1 Less well-known was the call by the real leader of Iran, Ayatollah Sayyid `Ali Khamanah’i [Khamanei],

Electing to Forget History? The Politics of Immigration in the French Presidential Campaign

by Mary Dewhurst Lewis

If Nicolas Sarkozy is elected president of France on May 6, as polls suggest, he will be the first child of an immigrant to hold that honor. One would hardly know it. Although Sarkozy does not hide the fact that his father emigrated from Hungary, neither does he flaunt his background. The former interior minister is much better known for his uncompromising stance toward less fortunate sons of immigrants in France’s impoverished suburbs. The contrast to an American figure like Barack Obama

Is the US Going to Attack Iran?

by Nasir Khan

Is the United States going to attack Iran?  This question is being asked around the world.The big American military build-up in the Persian Gulf has gone on for some time, and there is every reason to believe that Washington is setting the stage for a major offensive against Iran.  In fact, the Bush administration has followed a carefully orchestrated strategy with a view to paving the way for a major conflict with Iran. The clearest signal comes from US Vice President Dick C

A “New World” to Claim - The Arctic

by Robert J. Miller

Recent news reports state that global warming and the shrinking Arctic icecaps are opening new sea lanes and making barren islands suddenly very valuable.  In fact, the international community might experience a new race of exploration, conquest and acquisition for this “new world” - these newly available lands and sea routes.  Conflicts could arise over shipping lanes, islands, fish stocks, minerals and oil that are now becoming accessible and commercially exploitable.&

The Return of the Domino Theory

by Christopher McKnight Nichols

Dominoes are back. The old, scuffed political theory of one domino falling and knocking down others turned up recently in President Bush's call for support from Congress for a surge in U.S. troops in Iraq.On March 19, Bush said: "If American forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure, a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country. In time, this violence could engulf the region. For the safety of the American people, we cannot allow this to h

There It Goes Again: The Bush Administration's Latest Plan to Build New Nuclear Weapons

by Lawrence S. Wittner

The Bush administration's stubborn determination to prevail, whatever the costs, is evident not only in its reckless military venture in Iraq, but in its single-minded pursuit of new nuclear weapons.The U.S. government, of course, is supposed to be divesting itself of its nuclear weapons under the provisions of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which it signed in 1968.  As recently as the NPT review conference of 2000, the U.S. government joined other signers of the NPT

Yushchenko’s Gamble

by Andreas Umland

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s recent decision to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, is so risky a step that it may threaten the integrity of his political legacy. Contrary to the tenor of current heated discussions about the legal quality of Yushchenko’s decree, the main question about his decision is not a juridicial, but a political one: Yushchenko can, arguably, not win the fight into which, oddly, he got himself. Not only might the Constitutional