BEIJING - Two high-profile envoys of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, have arrived in China amidst hopes that their visit could lead to a substantive dialogue with the Chinese government after tentative behind-the-scenes contacts in recent months....
Iran's Nuclear Program In 2002 Iran announced plans to build six nuclear power stations. As a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran can buy and operate centrifuges and other equipment needed for enriching uranium as long as it only uses the...
"Have they all drunk the Kool-Aid?" asked a former CIA colleague, referring to the stampede to appoint a new director and radically restructure the intelligence community. The Kool-Aid allusion was to the "groupthink" that led disciples of...
BAGHDAD - Since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his dictatorial regime last year, one of the clearest signs that a new Iraq is born is the flourishing media business. But their coverage, and that of international Arabic-language satellite channels such as al-Arabiya...
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) recognizes the "inalienable right" of all signatories to "the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information" related to the "use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." That...
BRUSSELS - The European Union and some of its largest member states have reaffirmed their support for Iraq this week under the gaze of Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawar and amid rising tensions in the country. Top European Union (EU) officials have offered their...
NABLUS - The narrow streets amid the breeze-block shacks of the Balata refugee camp on the edge of the large West Bank City of Nablus have been a focus of Palestinian militancy throughout the current Intifada (uprising) that was triggered four years ago. Balata is the...
In Hegemony or Survival, Noam Chomsky suggested that our leaders, facing the choice in the book's title, might well opt for hegemony over survival. "There is ample historical precedent," he wrote, "for the willingness of leaders to threaten or resort to violence in...
After weeks of hurricanes and controversies over swift boats in Vietnam and Texas and Alabama National Guard records, Iraq is beginning to creep back onto the front pages, and the news is uniformly bad. Consider some of the headlines in major newspapers that appeared...
CARACAS - Spain took a step aimed at smoothing relations between Bogota and Caracas by canceling the sale of 40 French-made AMX-30 tanks to the Colombian government. If the sale had gone through, the tanks' guns would likely have pointed toward the Venezuelan border....
