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Understanding
What Happened
Deciding
Which News Reports Are Reliable
The Brookings Institution and Harvard held a panel
discussion with leading journalists specialized in the Middle East
and national affairs, including Robin Wright, Glenn Frankel, David
Shipler and Todd Purdum. The theme: How do we know what we are reading
in the news about Israel and Palestine is true? (Brookings-Harvard,
April 24, 2002)
Ariel
Sharon Wins Points with Israelis, But Is Beginning to Feel the Pressure
After last week’s 5-hour meeting with Saudi
Arabia’s Prince Abdullah, President Bush laid down the law
to Sharon over the weekend. The result: Arafat will go free, his
status as a hero confirmed. Ha’aretz reports that the pressure
coming from Washington was brutal (Ha’aretz, April 29, 2002)
A
Roadmap for Outside Intervention
Both Israelis and Palestinians can inflict unspeakable
agony, but neither is capable of victory. With passions inflamed
all around, help may be needed from a third party to stop what is
turning into a downward spiral of destructiveness. The International
Crisis Group analyzes the pros and cons of international intervention.
The International Crisis Group (ICG, April 10, 2002)
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The
Politics of Verticality
Israeli architect, Eyal Weizman, argues that to understand the conflict
in the West Bank , it is necessary to see beyond conventional political
boundaries. In fact, it requires a 3-D map. The separate world of
Arabs and Israelis turns that into six dimensions. To understand
what is going on now, it is necessary to grasp the significance
of the mountains and hills which provide islands of "Biblical
identity" and the aquifers deep below the West Bank which are
battlefields as much as the rivers of sewage that flow from Palestinian
and Israeli settlements. Weizman painstakingly maps and photographs
the overlooked vertical dimensions of the conflict. (Open Democracy,
April 29, 2002)
Saudi
Arabia's Conflicted Motivations
It is no secret that many Saudis feel anger and humiliation
at Israel’s attacks against an Arab population, but Riyadh
needs U.S. protection against Iraq and Iran, and it needs to keep
the oil flowing to support its flagging, over-extended economy.
Two new reports from the Center for Strategic and International
Studies analyze Saudi concerns over its own security and the War
on Terrorism, and its search for foreign investment and diversification
of its economy. (CSIS, April 24, 2002)
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Dispatches
from the West Bank
"…I will never
be able to forget the people whose stories I listened to, or the
sounds and smells that accompanied a kind of destruction I didn't
know was possible: I now know the smell of death and what it is
like to realise that you are standing on top of rubble under which
people lie buried…" --Jennifer Loewenstein on Jenin. Whatever
the rationale for the recent fighting, anyone who saw the aftermath
was likely to be shaken by the experience. Cairo's Al-Ahram published
a sampling of reports from the siege. (Al-Ahram, April 20, 2002)
Le Pen and Europe
What
If Le Pen Were to Win?
The second round in France’s presidential elections
will take place next Sunday, and while Jacques Chirac is expected
to win hands down, secret government polls which have been privately
circulating on the internet indicate that extreme right politician
Jean-Marie Le Pen could be more of a threat than most people realize.
UPI senior news analyst Michael Sieff explores the unthinkable and
takes a hard look at the voting patterns that have some analysts
concerned.(UPI, April 25, 2002).
France
Has Quietly Joined the Rest of Europe. Le Pen Wants to Reverse that
Trend
The first casualty of a Le Pen victory would very
likely be France’s integration into the European Union. Philip
Gordon and Sophie Meunier take a look at France’s "globalization
by stealth." (LeMonde –in English—April 16, 2002
U.S. Diplomacy
New
Directions at Foggy Bottom
In a wide-ranging speech to the Foreign policy
Association, Richard Haas, head of the State Department’s Policy
Planning Staff, says that we have entered a post-Cold War period
in which transnational challenges intersect with traditional concerns.
Faced with a multiplicity of threats, Haas sees his role as one
of moving in one direction, not many, and of developing a doctrine
that will help establish a unified set of basic priorities. (Richard
Haas, US State Dept. April 22, 2002)
How
Much Will It Cost?
Colin Powell told the Senate Appropriations Committee
that the administration will ask for a budget of $16.1 billion for
U.S. diplomatic operations and foreign aid, and another $5 billion
to fight terrorism. Powell gives a detailed breakdown on who gets
what. The International Atomic Energy Agency will get $50 million
to counter nuclear terrorism. Afghanistan will cost $140 million.
Colombia will get $730 million to fight drugs, and another $98 million
to protect its oil pipeline.
Asia
China's
Heir Apparent Makes First Trip to U.S.
Hu Jintao, who is expected to replace Jiang
Zemin, as president of China next fall, is spending the week getting
to know the U.S. Hu is expected to try his hand at jousting with
the Bush administration over Taiwan. Relations with China had seemed
to be improving in the wake of September 11, but a series of gaffs
by U.S. politicians have cooled the atmosphere.Bates Gill at Brookings
provides background on Hu. (New York Times, April 29, 2002).
Chinese
Missiles Pointed At Taiwan are a Point of Contention
The American Foreign policy Council reports that
the Chinese have been massing missiles along the Taiwan Straits,
and that the U.S. is getting ready to play a more active role. (American
Foreign Polciy Council, April 24, 2002)
The
Official List of Party Leaders
provides a complete, if somewhat glowing, biography
of Hu, as well as his placement on various party committees. (Chinese
government, 2002)
But
Can He Control the PLA?
You Ji at the National University of Singapore enumerates
Hu’s less visible connections within the Party structure and
asks how Hu will handle China’s People’s Liberation Army.
(National University of Signapore, February 19, 2002)
Shifting
Technologies Spell Trouble for Asian Economies
Singapore and Malaysia cashed in on a high-tech boom
that demanded intelligent, but low-cost labor. Trouble is that electronic
parts are becoming much cheaper and so miniaturized that they are
too small to be built with human hands. The next generation of electronic
hardware can be built more efficiently by machines. Companies like
Seagate, which manufactures computer disk drives, are shutting down
their factories and firing workers by the droves, with potentially
disasterous results for local economies. (By Neel Chowdhury, The
Far Eastern Economic Review, May 2, 2002)
After
Taking a Nose Dive on Wall Street, AOL Hoped to Recoup Its Losses
in China. Don't Hold Your Breath
Hooking China up to the Internet sounded like a good
idea, especially with AOL’s business in the U.S. turning into
a Wall Street pariah. But Steve Case and Gerald Levin didn’t
count on Beijing’s nervousness about the internet, and in a
complex market they failed to commit sufficient management expertise.
And the internet is not the only problem area. Time and Fortune
sell less than 2,000 copies in what should be one of the world’s
biggest markets. (By Ben Dolven in Shanghai and Alkman Granitsas
in Hong Kong, The Far Eastern Economic Review, May 2, 2002)
South
Asia
Pakistan
Gets to Choose Musharraf for Another Five Years
GMT used to signify Greenwhich Mean Time. The joke
in Pakistan these days is that it really stands for General Musharraf
Time. The general, who originally said he wanted to turn Pakistan
into a democracy, now wants to prolong his tenure for another 5
years. On Tuesday, voters will get to cast their ballots in a referendum
which will confirm both the general’s plans to hold on to power
and pakistan's stability. Thanks to Musharraf’s acquiescence
in the destruction of the Taliban, the West is likely to remain
silent about the general’s decision to put democracy on hold.
Syed Saleem Shahzad reports from Karachi in the Asia Times. (Nadeem
Iqbal, Asiatimes, April 26, 2002)
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