Harvard International Review articles from January 2009

Harvard International Review archives from January 2009

Letter from the editors.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... The events of fall 2008, marked by the collapse of Wall Street's investment banks and the unraveling of the global financial architecture, were unexpected and are still poorly understood. In discussing the mechanics of the global recession,...

Legality and localism.(CORRESPONDENCE)
January 1, 2009... The international community would be wise to support Mr. Carter's call ("Reconstructing the Rule of Law: Post-Conflict Liberia," Fall 2008) for an international endorsement of community-based structures that promote access to justice. ...

Extreme madrasahs.(CORRESPONDENCE)
January 1, 2009... Alexander Evans ("Madrasah Education: Necessity or Rational Choice," Fall 2008) is correct in focusing on the state's failure in South Asia to provide quality education. He, however, is wrong on two counts. He believes that some parents in...

Keeping promises: post-coup Mauritania.(AFRICA)
January 1, 2009... On August 6, 2008, Mauritanian troops staged a coup d'etat to remove from power and imprison President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, their country's first democratically-elected leader. The coup came shortly after Abdallahi's call for the...

Petrol power: oil's hold on Latin America.(AMERICAS)
January 1, 2009... Oil, former Venezuelan oil minister Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo famously noted, is "the devil's excrement." Ironically, his own country has ignored this prophetic warning most of all. In Venezuela and many other Latin American countries, huge...

Taking a chance: Nepal looks to Maoists for change.(ASIA)(Communist Party of Nepal-Marxist )
January 1, 2009... After a decade-long struggle against the ruling monarchy, the Communist Party of Nepal-Marxist (CPN-M) finally won the approval of the Nepalese people in their nation's April 2008 elections. The Maoists' victory brought an overwhelming sense of...

Europe's Obama: please stand up.(EUROPE)(Cem Ozdemir)
January 1, 2009... With an uncanny similarity to President Barack Obama across the Atlantic, Cem Ozdemir won the German Green Party's election in November 2008, becoming his country's first ethnic Turk to be elected the leader of a major political party. At age...

Remodeling Dubai: the emirate's housing market.(MIDDLE EAST)
January 1, 2009... Often considered an oasis of limitless growth in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the emirate of Dubai is widely known for its rapid expansion and lavish extravagance, which is nowhere as evident as in its market for housing and hotel...

A war without limits: Somalia's humanitarian Catastrophe.(PERSPECTIVES)(Essay)
January 1, 2009... For years, Somalia has been a byword for anarchic violence, famine, and drought. It is depicted as an inhospitable, ungovernable country ripped apart by long-standing internal feuds and, more recently, as a harbor for terrorism and piracy. Yet...

World in crisis; Japan's experiences.(PERSPECTIVES)(Essay)
January 1, 2009... Economic growth has been the basis of stability in many quarters of the world in the last decade. Emerging economies have grown rapidly in recent years due mainly to their exports, and other developing countries have begun to follow their...

Global competency: educating the world.(PERSPECTIVES)(Viewpoint essay)
January 1, 2009... The recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai raise four questions for an educator. First, how did the education of these perpetrators shape such hatred that they could take the lives of hundreds of unarmed civilians? Second, how were the individuals...

Mirage in the desert oasis: forced labor in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.(WORLD IN REVIEW)(Essay)
January 1, 2009... One hundred forty-three of the 192 countries in the world are involved in human trafficking. Though our civilization is currently flirting for the second time with globalization, enhanced technologically and scientifically from its first...

A crisis of belonging: Rwanda's ethnic nationalism and the Kivu conflict.(WORLD IN REVIEW)
January 1, 2009... The recent outbreak of conflict in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has elicited numerous calls for reconciliation both within Africa and in the West. The consensus seems to be that peace must be reestablished...

The future of the dollar: currency challenges in a globalized world.(RETHINKING FINANCE)
January 1, 2009... "They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper," exclaimed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at an OPEC summit in November 2007. Unkind words about the American currency from an Iranian president could normally be dismissed as political bluster,...

Monetary integration: prospects for a changing world economy.(RETHINKING FINANCE)
January 1, 2009... Only a short time ago, economists were predicting that the number of currencies in the global monetary system would fall from more than 150 to perhaps three or four. In 2001, Harvard's Kenneth Rogoff wrote in the American Economic Review, "It...

Necessary reform? The IMF and international financial architecture.(RETHINKING FINANCE)(International Monetary Fund)
January 1, 2009... The most salient issue of those concerned with the international financial architecture back in mid-2007 was "governance," in particular governance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This involved, among other things, the selection of...

On prudential regulation: to regulate foreign or domestic intermediation?(RETHINKING FINANCE)
January 1, 2009... In traditional Chinese medicine, the doctor is paid as long as the patient is healthy. The patient comes in four times a year for a checkup, with adjusted lifestyle recommendations. Payment is stopped once the patient is ill. In the US, as long...

Path to recovery: a libertarian perspective on economic crisis.(RETHINKING FINANCE)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... In your statements, you have advocated tax cuts over government spending as a policy instrument for economic stimulus. Could you explain why tax cuts would be more efficient? I would not use the words "more efficient," but I will come back...

Positive aspects of US image: issues for the new administration to consider.(PEW RESEARCH CENTER PRESENTS ...)
January 1, 2009... There is no doubt that the global image of the United States is not what it once was. Over the past eight years, the Bush Administration's foreign policies--Iraq, the war on terror, perceived US unilateralism--have been widely opposed, and the...

An illusory transition: resilient authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union.(FREEDOM HOUSE PRESENTS ...)
January 1, 2009... When President George H.W. Bush gave his "A Europe Whole and Free" speech in Mainz, (West) Germany in May 1989, the assumptions of the time suggested a clear path in establishing open and democratic countries in Europe and Eurasia, what he...

Obstacles in international justice: the establishment and efficacy of international courts.(INTERVIEW)(International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)(Interview)
January 1, 2009... How did the precedents set by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) change the concept of accountability systems in conflict situations? The...

Evaluating the euro: past problems and future concerns.(The Euro at 10: Europeanization, Power, and Convergence )(Book review)
January 1, 2009... The Euro at 10: Europeanization, Power, and Convergence Kenneth Dyson (Oxford University Press, 2008) The euro turned ten on January 1, 2009, which called for a reflection on its first decade. The authors of the edited volume The...

Building cooperation: Bulgaria's essential role in regional integration.(ENDPAPER)
January 1, 2009... After years of social and political transformation, Bulgaria has uniquely positioned itself among the countries of the Balkans and Black Sea region. Not only does it currently enjoy unprecedented economic growth and the full trust of foreign...