Global Archive

Boston University’s Andrew Bacevich takes Tuesday’s prize for the most thought-provoking opinion piece. In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, Bacevich provides his recipe for a new realist American foreign policy: Given that Bush’s version of global war has proved such a costly flop, what ought to replace it? Answering that question requires a new set of principles to guide U.S. policy. Here are five: * Rather than squandering American power, husband it. As Iraq has shown, U.S. military strength is finite. The nation’s economic reserves and diplomatic clout also are limited. They badly need replenishment. * Align ends with means. […]

U.S. aid to Pakistan has totaled $9.6 billion since October 2001, according to State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey. Casey said Monday that State Department lawyers are examining whether any existing legislation requires suspending aid as a result of the Pakistan government’s recent actions in declaring a state of emergency and suspending the country’s constitution. The State Department also will review the overall U.S. aid relationship with Pakistan in light of recent events, regardless of legal requirements, Casey said. “We obviously are going to have to assess what’s happened here, but it’s hard to see how if these measures remain […]

The public is largely unaware of the extent to which EU money influences political debate: not only in Europe, but around the world. When, for example, the French-based International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) filed a “torture” complaint against Donald Rumsfeld during the former Defense Secretary’s brief visit to Paris last month, many commentators dismissed the move as a typical stunt of European “leftists.” But this interpretation does not do justice to the quasi-official role FIDH plays as a “PGO”: a “Para-Governmental Organization,” which receives massive public funding from the European Commission to promote EU policy choices and, so to […]

Here are the top 10 most read WPR articles for last week (Sunday Oct. 28 – Saturday Nov. 3): 1. Armenian Genocide: the Lobbying Behind the Congressional Resolution2. Will Africa Rival the Middle East as a U.S. Oil Supplier?3. Russian Leaders Putin and Lavrov Walk Cautiously in Tehran4. U.S. Military Counterintelligence Activities Raise Privacy Concerns5. Russia in a Multipolar World: Russian Independent Media on Putin’s Visit to Iran6. European Ambivalence Threatens NATO Afghanistan Mission7. Islamist-Communist Alliance in South Asia: Hyperbole or Hazard?8. As Uzbekistan Gets Set for Presidential Pill, Karimov Reelection Appears Likely9. America is Somehow to Blame: German Public […]

The U.N. Population Fund Video “Girls Gone Missing in Asia” examines the problem of growing gender imbalances in places like India and China. The issue was highlighted in this week’s Rights & Wrongs. Watch the video below: If you are having trouble seeing the video above, go here.

Interesting findings on Pakistani public opinion from WorldPublicOpinion.org: A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll finds that just 44 percent of urban Pakistanis favor sending the Pakistani army to the Northwestern tribal areas to “pursue and capture al Qaeda fighters.” Only 48 percent would allow the Pakistan army to act against “Taliban insurgents who have crossed over from Afghanistan.” In both cases, about a third oppose such military action and a fifth decline to answer. Pakistanis reject overwhelmingly the idea of permitting foreign troops to attack al Qaeda on Pakistani territory. Four out of five (80%) say their government should not allow American or […]