The Washington Quarterly articles from June 1998

The Washington Quarterly archives from June 1998

The WTO and nonmarket economics. (World Trade Organization)(Editorial)
June 22, 1998... One of the little-discussed challenges created by the end of the Cold War is integrating former communist economies into the global economic system they once shunned. Though these countries generally have recognized the need for economic and...

Iraq beyond the crisis du jour. (UN inspection of sites of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq)(Editorial)
June 22, 1998... While the Kofi Annan-brokered agreement of February removed, at least temporarily, Iraq from the headlines and talk shows, there is no reason to believe that defusing the crisis over the UNSCOM inspection rights equates to a long-term solution...

Liening on Saddam. (US strategy for countering Russia's objection to military strike against Iraq)(Editorial)
June 22, 1998... Since last December's Primakov "solution" to the latest phase of the Iraq crisis - which, as we learned in January, solved nothing at all - a small debate has congealed over the mix of motives that has led Russia to seek renewed diplomatic...

Close to the edge in Kosovo. (ethnic conflict in Kosovo, Yugoslavia)(Editorial)
June 22, 1998... The Kosovo crisis has entered a dangerous phase that could seriously destabilize the Balkans. This is a consequence of three developments. First, the Serb-Yugoslav government has shown little indication that it is seeking a genuine compromise...

Whose 'model' failed? Implications of the Asian economic crisis.
June 22, 1998... The Asian economic crisis is cause for rethinking the long-established consensus among mostly Western and Western-trained economists about the causes of the region's "miracle" economic growth and industrial development. Most recently restated...

The Asian financial crisis: Beijing's year of reckoning.
June 22, 1998... China, the one regional player thought to be most insulated from East Asian financial turmoil, is quietly enduring the gravest and most potentially destabilizing consequences of that crisis. This is not because China's currency, the renminbi,...

America's Iraq policy: how did it come to this?
June 22, 1998... Seven years after the Gulf War, the United States remains enmeshed in a cycle of crises with Iraq that is still far from over. The biggest challenges, in fact, may lie ahead - potentially crises with allies as well as with the regime of...

Cambodian democracy: in a bleak landscape, strong signs of hope.
June 22, 1998... On Malai Road in northwestern Cambodia, people are on the move again and death has given way to new life. The road used to be impassable - heavily mined, caught in crossfire, broken by neglect. Not far off the road lies the blasted chunk of...

The pessimism syndrome. (people pessimism despite an improvement in quality of life)
June 22, 1998... There is an odd paradox of modern life in the United States, and in many other nations in the developed and developing worlds alike: things have never been so good, yet people have rarely been so negative about their country's situation and so...

The proliferation of states.
June 22, 1998... Not without reason, the world has been worrying about the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, as well as the ballistic missiles able to deliver them. But parallel to this now familiar strategic challenge - attempts to...

The Macedonian Question ... again. (territorial conflict between Macedonian Slavs and Albanians)
June 22, 1998... The Macedonian Question, which has been before the world for a century and a quarter now, is historically the most nebulous, complex, and brutal of Balkan conflicts. It is also the most protean, with major players fading from the stage and...

Turkey: into the abyss? (political instability)
June 22, 1998... Surprisingly few secular-minded Turks thought there was much wrong with the plan cooked up by some top generals and other segments of Turkey's establishment when they joined forces to boot Necmettin Erbakan and his Islamist colleagues out of...

Finding African solutions to African problems.
June 22, 1998... Ever since the Somali debacle, America's most popular African policy prescription has been "African solutions to African problems." It seems to make a lot of sense. Western interventions in Africa have been notoriously unsuccessful, from the...

Qadhafi and the challenge of militant Islam. (Libyan leader Mu'ammar Qadhafi)
June 22, 1998... The Islamic opposition continues to be the most vibrant political force in the Middle East. While Western policymakers and the media seem fixated on the Islamic fundamentalist challenge in Algeria, the regime that totters on the brink of...

Britain's European dilemma. (foreign policy)
June 22, 1998... For Britain, Europe is the problem that never gets solved. Tony Blair has become the latest in a long line of British prime ministers to swear that he will put Britain's relations with Europe on a new and sounder footing. Upon taking office in...

Europe undivided. (US foreign policy toward Europe)
June 22, 1998... Europe whole and free, Europe peaceful, undivided, and democratic. Presidential rhetoric or a practical guide to action? An irrelevancy, if not an anachronism, or an organizing principle for American foreign policy akin to the Cold War's...

Miracle on the Vistula. (success of democracy and market economy in Poland)
June 22, 1998... Back in the autumn of 1989, Leszek Balcerowicz, the unknown finance minister in the sudden Solidarity government, looked at the calendar and at the Polish industrial shambles. He had, he calculated, 10 weeks in which to destroy the entire...

Prospects for the 2000 Democratic nomination. (presidential election)
June 22, 1998... The 1998 midterm congressional elections are just a few months off, but the 2000 presidential election is already under way. Although the prospective presidential hopefuls will not make their final "go-or-no-go" decisions until the period just...