Kenneth N. Luongo: on the need to control the world's increasing supply of loose nuclear material Nigel Chamberlain: on nuclear weapons discussions in Geneva Ian Urbina: on NYU professor Noah Feldman's struggle to promote Islamic democracy in Baghdad Ralph A. Cossa: on closing the gap with South Korea over the Pyongyang crisis Sean Howard: on giving the Pentagon a holiday so we can solve the world's real problems Jing-dong Yuan: on SARS as a politcal catalyst in China Anouar Boukhars: on the terrorist threat to democracy in Morocco

New York University

U.S. State Department's
Report on Patterns of Global Terrorism for 2002

The US State Department's Report on Patterns of Global Terrorism for 2001

A MULTI-FRONT EFFORT TO SALVAGE THE PEACE ROADMAP
A whirlwind series of diplomatic maneuvers over the weekend attempted to save the Middle East peace effort, with Egyptians attempting to secure an agreement with Palestinians to stop suicide attacks in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from sensitive zones. There was no sign of success, and a major Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, has vowed to continue attacks against Israeli soldiers. (Economist, June 16, 2003)

LUGAR: U.S MAY NEED TO HELP IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST HAMAS
Speaking on Fox News, Sunday, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee says that he does not support targeted assassinations, but Israel may need international help in tracking down Hamas. "Never underestimate President George Bush," says Lugar. "Once his teeth are into this situation, there are likely to be unforeseen circumstances, and the security situation may change." (Senator Richard Lugar, Fox News, Sunday, June 15, 2003)

A MAP OF SELF DECEPTION?
Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas told Washington what it wanted to hear, but hardly anyone else seems ready to go along. Writing in Al Ahram Weekly, Jonathan Cook points out that unrealistic demands for security are a major part of the peace roadmap's weakness. Unless the Israelis offer a carrot along with their reprisals, the chance of success is minimal. Says Cook: "The fallacy from Oslo is being repeated: that a solution to the conflict can be found in the Palestinians realising Israel's national ambitions rather than their own, far more limited, ones. Palestinians must once again be made to enforce the occupation on Israel's behalf. " (Jonathan Cook, Al Ahram Weekly, 12-18 June, 2003

THE NEW WALL
In lieu of the peace roadmap, the Israeli solution that seems to be gaining ground is to rely on internal isolation via a 30-foot high concrete barrier slated to run 625 miles, and represent a defacto annexation of 10% of the occupied territories. The wall will, in the eyes of some of its critics, create a tiny defacto Palestinian state before the roadmap has a chance to create a larger one.
(Edward Sheehan in the New York Review of Books,July 3, 2003)

Ron Ha-Cohen looks at the background behind the wall (Ron Ha-Cohen, May 21, 2003)

GUANTANAMO INMATES
Prisoners held by U.S. forces at Guantanamo were not physically abused per se according to a new report by the New York Times, but they were held for weeks in cells that measured only 6-1/2 feet by 8-feet, and allowed to take a bath once a week for less than five minutes. They were allowed to "exercise" once a week by pacing back and forth for 10 minutes in a 30-foot pen. The psychological pressure was so intense that some repeatedly tried to commit suicide. Because of the administration's refusal to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Geneva Convention the prisoners' treatment was left largely to the discretion of the president and the Pentagon. (The New York Times, June 17, 2003)

IRAQ'S LONG HOT SUMMER
The temperature can reach 140 degrees in Iraq during the summer, and tempers flare as well. The International Crisis Group warns that unless the U.S. can get a handle on security and infrastructure within the next few weeks, it is likely to face not only increasingly violent resistance in iraq, but also a general loss of credibility across the Middle East. One thing that the Americans need to do is to go outside their heavily armed compounds and establish direct contact with the population.They also need to learn to communicate more effectively. Most U.S. edicts are now printed in Iraqi newspapers that are too expensive for the average citizen to afford, or broadcast on televisions that don't work because of a shortage of electricity.
(ICG, June 11, 2003)

IRANIAN STUDENT PROTESTS
The protests are still confined to a relatively small area, but observers in Teheran have been taken aback by their ferocity. the students say they want change, but they are unable to articulate what a new Iran would be. First of a three-part series.(Scott Petersen, The Christian Science Monitor, june 17, 2003)

WASHINGTON MAY BE PLAYING INTO IRANIAN CLERICS' HANDS
By cheering student protesters while at the same time hinting strongly at "regime change", Washington may be providing Iran's embattled clergy with the pretext it needs to annihilate the last vestiges of the reform movement. (By Hooman Peimani, Asia Times, June 17, 2003)

GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS
The American Heritage Institute's recently launched website opens a new campaign against non-government organizations whose rising influence is beginning to impact on the overseas operations of American corporations as well as the administration. The AEI's effort has the backing of more than 40 highly placed figures in the administration and leading U.S. corporations. (Jim Lobe, Foreign Policy in Focus, June 13, 2003)
NGOWATCH.ORG'S MANDATE
The AEI's own website provides transcripts of a day-long discussion on the need to keep tabs on NGO's in order to monitor"The growing power of an unelected few." Read Jarol B. Manheim's paper on "Foundation-NGO network warfare on Corporations in the United States", Roger Bate and Richard Tren on how NGO's are damaging Africa's development by resisting free trade, genetically engineered crops and the use of pesticides, and John Entine's paper on "Capitalism’s Trojan Horse: How the “Social Investment” Movement Undermines Stakeholder Relations and Emboldens the Anti-Free Market Activities of NGOs." (Links to these papers are provided in a gray box at the upper lefthand corner of the page) American Heritage Institute, June 11, 2003)

HANS BLIX: THOSE BASTARDS IN WASHINGTON
The outgoing U.N. arms inspection chief, Hans Blix, dropped his customary Nordic restraint in describing the attempts of Pentagon interlopers to sabotage the U.N. mission. The bottom line was a loss in civility. Helena Smith interviewed Blix for the Guardian.
(Helena Smith, The Guardian, June 11, 2003)
The Blix interview
The Guardian's John O'Farrell comments on the stress Blix faced during his tenure. Blix's leaving card is already being passed around the Pentagon and one or two of the comments certainly reveal a slight hostility towards the retiring diplomat, notes O'Farrell. Typical examples: "Sorry you are leaving the UN, Hans. THAT'S IF YOU CAN FIND THE GODDAMN DOOR TO YOUR OFFICE!" or "Hope you like your present, Hans, though I expect you'll get a bigger one from your buddy Saddam." (John O'Farrell in the Guardian, june 13, 2003)

SOMEONE IS KILLING OFF THE HEADS OF THE RUSSIAN DEFENSE INDUSTRY
It's always possible that some of the killings were random assaults by street thugs, but corporate infighting in Russia is also a dangerous business.
(Yulia Latininya, Moscow Times via Center for Defense Information, June 12, 2003)

BURNISHING THE AMERICAN IMAGE
As a Pew Foundation study recently indicated, the U.S. image abroad has hit a new low point in Muslim countries. Ignoring the obvious reasons--mistreatement of Muslims in the U.S., lop sided support to Israel, collateral damage in Iraq, disruption and abandonment in Afghanistan and saber rattling against various Middle Eastern governments--a number of foreign policy experts in Washington are currently trying to develop a more coherent analysis on exactly what went wrong. R. S. Zaharna, writing in Foreign Policy in Focus details the attempt to tally up early lessons learned from a series of foreign policy fiascos. (R.S. Zaharna, FPIF, June 13, 2003)

JUST HOW CLOSELY IS THE MUSLIM WORLD MONITORING THE FACTS?
The Hudson Institute's Paul Aligica points out that the masses in most countries have little idea of what the intricacies of American policy really are. The elites are a different story, and Aligica argues that the determining factor in world opinion depends to a great extent on the ease with which elites can mould their own country's public opinion and their reasons for doing so.
(Paul Aligica, the Hudson Institute, June 11, 2003)

FIRST LESSONS FROM IRAQ
The center for Strategic and International Studies' Anthony Cordesman provides a 332-page analysis of what was learned from combat in Iraq. The conclusion: the U.S. and Britain formed an unprecedented formidable military force. The alternatives for future opponents, consequently, is either to surrender outright, or place a much heavier emphasis on assymetric warfare (i.e. terrorism) and to accelerate the race to obtain their own weapons of mass destruction. (Anthony Cordesman, CSIS, June 13, 2003)

AND AFGHANISTAN
In a 121-page report on the fight in Afghanistan, Anthny Cordesman notes that the extreme precision of missiles and air-dropped smart bombs easily replaced the traditional role of artillery and armor. Yet the fight for Torah Borah also indicates that guerrilla troops are able to completly evade U.S. electronic detection techniques unless there are troops actually deployed on the ground. (Anthony Cordesman, CSIS, June 13, 2003)

KABUL'S CONSTITUTION LOSING ITS WAY
The International Crisis Group recommends that plans for another Loya Jirga next October be scrapped in favor of a national referendum that actually stimulates a political debate. The current drafting of the constitution is suspect, largely because it is being carried out in secret. Without a debate that actually involves the public, whatever government emerges is going to be short on credibility. (ICG, June 13, 2003)

INDONESIA THREATENS AMERICAN JOURNALIST WITH REBELS
The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the fate of American freelance journalist, William Nessen, who was traveling with members of Northern Sumatra's Free Aceh Movement when the group came under attack from Indonesian soldiers. Nessen told his wife by cellphone that he had tried to surrender to the Indonesian troops, but they opened fire on him and forced him to flee with the rebels. Shortly after that, the phone line went dead. (Committee to Protect Journalists, June 10, 2003)

Paris Air Show: Europe leads

THE PARIS AIR SHOW’S PERFECT STORM
A combination of anti-French chauvinism in Washington, growing dissatisfaction with the Bush administration abroad, and an economic crisis in the airlines industry dramatically reduced American participation at the Paris Air Show. In the meantime, Europe’s Airbus Industry snared a $12.5 billion deal to build 41 airliners for Emirates Airlines. The sale gives Airbus a lead over Boeing in civilian aircraft sales for the first time in 25 years. Airbus will deliver 300 jets this year, compared to 280 for Boeing. Boeing has logged only 36 sales so far. At one time Boeing controlled 90% of the civilian market.
(BBC, June 16, 2003)
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY’S LEAD UP TO THE SHOW
Everyone in the industry is hurting, but some less than others.
The Paris Air Show Website

THE ROOTS OF WAR
Although the War in Iraq was pushed by a small group of neo-conservatives in Washington, British columnist Peter Hitchens writing in the London Spectator, argues that the philosophy behind it and the Bush administration in general has a great deal in common with old-style leftist Marxism--especially when it comes to the total rejection of anyone who dares to disagree with the central party line. The Marxists are usually the first to push for censorship and enhanced state control in the interests of "state security.". In fact, says Hitchens, many of the war's staunchest supporters in England and the U.S. are former leftists who lost their faith and switched to the far right. From a British point of view the war is even harder to understand. "This war was always different from those that have gone before," writes Hitchens. "Previous conflicts in the modern age, even if usually caused by failures of deterrence, and even if they extended the power of the state, did at least have the virtue of being in British interests, because if we did not fight them we would be ruined, subjugated or fatally humbled. This one is so hard to justify that its supporters treat their own arguments with scorn, wanly grinding out cant phrases that long ago lost their meaning, trying to frighten us with bogeymen or pretending grotesquely that liberty and civilisation can be imposed on Mesopotamia with explosives..."
By Peter Hitchens, The Spectator, June 14, 2003. click here for full text

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