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(02/05/02 5:00am)
A little over a week ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell formally requested that President George W. Bush provisionally recognize all detainees held by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Cuba as prisoners of war, who would be granted protection by the second Geneva Convention of 1949. Even though such recognition might hinder the ongoing investigation into Sept. 11 attacks, I have to agree with the secretary that to do otherwise would be a serious violation of our nation's treaty obligations.
(01/22/02 5:00am)
What is most notable about the Bush administration's decision to house Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at its Guantanamo Bay naval base is not the policy itself but rather Cuba's lack of opposition to it. In the past, the Cuban government denounced America's continued presence on the island as an example of its "imperialist foreign policy," with Fidel Castro's famous description of Guantanamo as "a dagger pointed at the heart of Cuba." But now, Castro has ordered his armed forces to cooperate with the U.S. military in securing the prisoners. He was also one of the first world leaders to condemn the attacks of Sept. 11, even offering the use of Cuba's airspace to U.S. aircraft. The key question is whether these modest but positive steps can help finally end over 40 years of mistrust and divisiveness between Cuba and its neighbor to the north.
(01/11/02 5:00am)
Sometimes, an easy victory is not a good thing. It tends to make people complacent, and out of complacency arises a sense of false security. The same pundits who rightly called for an all-out war against the Taliban sing a completely different tune now that the military phase of the conflict is winding down. In effect, they would like the United States and its allies to shirk their responsibility to the people of Afghanistan. These naysayers either reject the notion that Afghans need Western assistance in rebuilding their war-torn country or claim that America has no vested interest in participating in the reconstruction effort. Both of these attitudes are flat-out wrong.
(12/10/01 5:00am)
Suppose you were instructed to draw up a list of the most powerful nations in the world. There seem to be many ways to answer this question, as there are a multitude of criteria used to judge a country's international position, but one look at the charter of the United Nations suggests that the answer is actually quite obvious. For the last 56 years, the self-appointed masters of the world were the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
(11/27/01 5:00am)
On Nov. 14, the Cold War quietly ended in a draw. It ended not because former adversaries suddenly had some sublime revelation about the virtues of peace and nonviolence but rather because events outside their control forced them both to unite against a common enemy. With the events of Sept. 11 imposing a radically different strategic reality on both the United States and Russia, petty squabbling about who gets to own more nuclear warheads somehow seemed more than a little passZ.
(11/16/01 5:00am)
About two weeks ago, I saw a flyer on campus that caused me to think hard about the public relations dimension of the campaign against terrorism. The flyer was a crude satire of an ROTC recruiting poster, encouraging students who thought that the Persian Gulf War was "too easy" to join what it referred to as the "killing machine," and suggesting that current action in Afghanistan must be a sheer delight for the trigger-happy U.S. military.
(10/30/01 5:00am)
November 9, 2005: The California Department of Public Health declares a statewide medical emergency as upwards of 15,000 residents of the Los Angeles area are suddenly admitted to local hospitals with flu-like symptoms. Officials have no immediate comment on what caused the strange outbreak.
(10/17/01 4:00am)
In the war against terrorism, each country's contribution to the global effort is a function of two factors: its logistical ability to assist the coalition and its level of political comfort in working to suppress terrorism by all necessary means, including force. Most of America's allies in the Middle East have the former but less of the latter. On the other hand, its NATO partners have the latter, but not the former. And then there is the anomaly--a country whose government can help and wants to help, but due to a document written 50 years ago under an entirely different set of circumstances, is legally prohibited from doing so. Barring a dramatic change in the anachronistic interpretation of its pacifist constitution, Japan's domestic law will not allow it to fulfill the international obligations its newly elected government rightly seeks to respect.
(10/03/01 4:00am)
One of the most remarkable international developments since Sept. 11 has been the willingness of Russian President Vladimir Putin to go along with President George W. Bush's proposed war on terrorism. The flexibility Putin has shown in balancing domestic pressures from hardliners and requests for assistance from a former Cold War foe are nothing short of a diplomatic coup. It seems that Russia is getting prepared to emerge from its semi-isolation of the 1990s and to join the West, which has spent so much time and money courting Russia as a full partner. The question now is how long it will it last?
(09/13/01 4:00am)
The horrific events of Tuesday represent more than the loss of America's innocence and dismissive attitude toward domestic terrorism. They represent a failure on the part of the intelligence and national security authorities--a failure so colossal that it defies comprehension. In the months and years ahead, there must be a massive and fundamental reassessment of the intelligence apparatus' and the U.S. military's practical capabilities.
(08/28/01 4:00am)
The foundation of U.S. foreign policy since at least 1915 has been the transatlantic relationship, and no nation on the other side of the Atlantic has been more critical to the preservation of America's leadership in Europe than the United Kingdom. In the two world wars, the United States offered substantial aid--often free of charge--to its closest ally in the Old World even before it officially entered the conflict itself. Prime Minister Winston Churchill's famous friendship with President Franklin Roosevelt ensured that the so-called "special relationship" would last long after the re-establishment of peace.
(05/24/01 4:00am)
It has been said that nothing is more unfashionable than a fashion that is out of fashion. Following this logic, it seems that the most unfashionable ideology in the world must be the so-called neoliberal movement, which views economic globalization as public enemy number one.
(03/20/01 5:00am)
The fate of the nation's-nay, the world's-economy will be decided this week at the meeting of the Federal Reserve Board. This meeting, by far the most important economic event in a generation, will mean the difference between recession and recovery in the United States, and by extension, the rest of the industrialized world. The decision on interest rates that Alan Greenspan and other Fed governors will make is of such magnitude and importance that, by comparison, President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut is a drop in the proverbial bucket.
(03/05/01 5:00am)
"No sane citizen, political leader or nation wants thermonuclear war. But merely not wanting it is not enough," said Robert McNamara, U.S. secretary of defense, in 1967.
(02/12/01 5:00am)
It has become clear that it is high time for Great Britain to have an honest debate on the future of its monarchy. The '90s, more than any decade of the past century, have ignited the passions of the United Kingdom's republicans. Charles's divorce, Diana's tragic death, the hundredth birthday of the Queen Mother-all of these combined create a storm of controversy about the royal family. And yet, because they fear upsetting the comfortable status quo, the country and its leaders have avoided a protracted public battle over this fundamental question. The situation is not unlike the trepidation some Americans feel about abolishing the Electoral College-and the monarchy is seven hundred years older than the U.S. Constitution.
(01/22/01 5:00am)
It was January 22, 2011, and tanks of the United European Army (UEA) were quietly massing on the border of Denmark.
(10/09/00 4:00am)
It was a scene eerily reminiscent of Eastern Europe in 1989. The majestic halls of the Yugoslav federal parliament in Belgrade overrun by mobs of angry protesters, the entire capital paralyzed by clashes between demonstrators and the police. Except the crowd did not chant for the abolition of a political ideology, or even a particular party. In a united voice, the people of Yugoslavia-eventually even the army and the state-run media-demanded that one man leave the seat of power that he occupied for eleven years and lost just over two weeks ago.
(09/26/00 7:00am)
Though I applaud The Chronicle's Monday editorial for its commitment to ecological stewardship, I disagree with its analysis of oil's role in the world economy. I strongly applaud President Clinton's wise decision to take a stand on the issue of oil prices and protect the United States economy from further inflationary pressures.
