Kyoto Bites
In the seven years since the Kyoto Conference the scientific debate over the reality of global warming has been largely settled. Yet the effectiveness of the treaty that has been rejected by the U.S, and which excludes the worlds fast growing developing economies remains widely questioned. Kyoto’s leading critic, the U.S Government, recently admitted that global warming is taking place and that this is a result of human activity.
Evangelicals Invade Iraq
United States based evangelical NGOs and evangelical churches alike mobilized their forces to distribute humanitarian aid, as well as a plethora of Christian literature and an army of missionaries. As the efforts were underway, the onlooking Muslim world suspiciously questioned such motive
Driving Deterioration. How the car culture contributes to escalating human misery
The author asks the reader to consider how the car in the last 100 years has been responsible for turning an area of natural landscape in the U.S. the size of Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania into concrete or asphalt. To consider that it has been directly responsible for injuring 250 million, nearly equivalent to the current population of the U.S., and killing more than have died in all the wars in which the country has fought. To consider that the widespread use of this same contraption burns 8 million barrels of oil daily, making the U.S. increasingly dependent on and entangled with a severely unstable world region. To consider that it kills one million wild animals every week. The automobile continues to be responsible for myriad negative effects that, when assessed rationally, far outweigh the benefits. And the rest of the world is close behind…
The Japanese Constitution as Peace System
The wars in Asia would seem to demand that certain European countries, the U.S., and Japan all re-examine the value systems that presumably provided the justification for those wars. Many situations of “instability” in this century were actually based on the preconceptions and deeds of the nations that applied that label. Now as ever, if a country has reason to be opposed to something, it will typically display a tendency to assume that other countries are engaged in strategic designs or acting from an adversarial position.
The business of war
Saddam was captured by regular troops. However, underlying the tactical and strategic operations in Iraq, has been and is an emerging new generation of US military tactics that relies increasingly on sophisticated information and communication technologies, which are not only developed and produced by the civilian industry, but can in fact only be maintained and operated by civilian experts.
Complexities
Your average CNN-watching American may be able to report the latest on soldiers killed or Iraqis successfully “found, killed or captured,” but you’d be hard pressed to find an average American who could tell you how the scene is really unfolding. How complex is the situation?
Talking Peace for North Korea
The announcement last week that China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States will meet within one month for multilateral talks on the North Korea issue has been greeted worldwide with unbridled optimism (‘A Welcome First Step on the Path to Korean Peace’, South China Morning Post, 2 August, 2003). A military solution has largely been ignored or downplayed, with the exception of a predictably hawkish article by former CIA Director R. James Woolsey in the Asian Wall Street Journal, detailing why an invasion of North Korea would be logistically easier and politically less sensitive than the invasion of Iraq.
Cowboy Stupid
Matthew Norton defends bad grammar and argues against stupidity.
The Marshall Plan Mystique
The war in Iraq had not even begun when public discussion began on the rebuilding of Iraq by the US. Is this to be another “not the Marshall plan”? David Ekbladh calls for rethinking the approach to so-called Marshall Plans.
The Day War Broke Out
News editor, Joseph Schumacher, checks the editorials around the world on THE DAY WAR BROKE OUT.