Harvard International Review articles from June 2006

Harvard International Review archives from June 2006

The framers' war-making powers.(CORRESPONDENCE)
June 22, 2006... Professor John Yoo ("Exercising Wartime Powers: The Need for a Strong Executive," Spring 2006) may be correct that modern practice gives US presidents substantial say in deciding when to use military force. He is wrong, though, to trace this...

The war on terror.(CORRESPONDENCE)
June 22, 2006... As the 20th century was drawing to a close, Francis Fukuyama argued that the great debate between freedom and oppression had been won by the United States and the West. But history was not over, and totalitarianism, hatred, and imperialism were...

Mineral wealth: the cry from the DRC.(Democratic Republic of Congo)
June 22, 2006... The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the site of the world's deadliest conflict since World War II, with over three million dead since fighting began in 1998. Though substantial progress has been made in the past few years, large regions...

Vague targets: the case of aid in South Africa.(AFRICA)
June 22, 2006... From Bono to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, humanitarians and politicians around the world are promoting a new era of foreign aid and development for Africa. Hoping to conquer today's greatest calamities, developed countries are attempting...

Koizumi's move: change uncertain in Japan.(Junichiro Koizumi)
June 22, 2006... In a country often characterized by political apathy and government inertia, Japan's general election of 2005 was novel. For the first time in recent history, an incumbent prime minister ran and was re-elected on a platform that centered on a...

Axis of Evo: Bolivia's model of leftism.(Evo Morales )
June 22, 2006... Shortly after taking office as President of Bolivia in December 2005, Evo Morales went on a world tour with stops in Cuba, Venezuela, Spain, France, South Africa, and China. It may seem presumptuous for the new leader of a small, impoverished...

Cleaned slate? Mayan troubles in Guatemala.(AMERICAS)
June 22, 2006... Inequalities that exist between the indigenous Mayans of Guatemala and the white population have received minimal international or domestic attention. Dominated by Ladinos, a minority group of westernized Mayans, and Mestizos, who are people of...

Falling sick: Britain's National Health Service.(EUROPE)
June 22, 2006... Once a world-renowned model of successful nationalized health care, Britain's National Health Service (NHS) now faces an uncertain future. Despite the best defenses of the Labour government, the Conservative opposition has outlined a number of...

Ports and politics: sinking US-UAE relations.(Dubai Ports World's expansion)
June 22, 2006... The attempted takeover of six US port terminals by Dubai Ports World (DPW), based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has strained the historically amicable US-UAE relationship. The future looks grim: a recent Gulf News poll reported 64 percent...

More than ideology: the conflation of populism with the left in Latin America.(PERSPECTIVES)
June 22, 2006... If one reads current press reports and academic analyses on Latin America, the prevailing opinion seems to be that the left is making a comeback. Even though there is some truth to this perception, the political changes that are occurring in...

The fire again? Iraq, Iran, and the Gulf.(PERSPECTIVES)
June 22, 2006... Historical amnesia often distorts Western perceptions of the Middle East. In a manner comparable to that taken in the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq, Western policymakers attempting to develop an effective strategy for dealing with Iran...

For permanent peace: beyond the nuclear challenge and the Cold War.(PERSPECTIVES)
June 22, 2006... Since last year's breakthrough September 19 Joint Statement, the North Korean nuclear issue has drawn considerable attention in the international community. With that development, which transpired during the Six-Party Talks in Beijing, progress...

Rethinking Latin America: a new approach in US foreign policy.(PERSPECTIVES)
June 22, 2006... Even though the Cold War ended two decades ago, its outdated strategies continue to shape US foreign policy. Nowhere is this more evident than in the foreign relations of the United States with Latin American countries. Because US interests in...

Join the club: Japan's Security Council bid.(WORLD IN REVIEW)(Group of Four)
June 22, 2006... Will Japan finally attain a permanent spot on the Security Council? The nation obtained a rotating seat for the 2005 to 2006 term, and now it wants to stay. Permanent membership has become a priority for Japan. Its leaders have certainly...

Problems of enforcement: Iran, North Korea, and the NPT.(Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968)
June 22, 2006... At first glance, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) seems to offer a concrete solution to the problem posed by nuclear weaponry. As the most widely accepted arms-control agreement, the NPT attempts to codify the prevention of arms...

Confronting Cairo: changing an illusory democracy.
June 22, 2006... When President Hosni Mubarak announced in February 2005 that Egypt would be holding direct democratic presidential elections for the first time in its history, US President George W. Bush was quick to welcome the news as a positive step toward...

On deaf ears? Toward better informed policy.(do ideas matter? ACADEMY AND POLICY)
June 22, 2006... US President John E Kennedy was deeply influenced by historian Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and applied its lessons about World War I to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Did reading academic work help Kennedy forge a cautious policy that...

In need of nuance: what the academy can teach.(do ideas matter? ACADEMY AND POLICY)
June 22, 2006... Over the years I have had a recurring encounter at professional meetings: a cluster of academics, discussing the implications of their research, worry that the findings, if ripped out of context and misappropriated by government officials,...

Access to power: research in international policymaking.(do ideas matter? ACADEMY AND POLICY)
June 22, 2006... In 1742 David Hume published a brief essay with the rather remarkable title, That Politics May Be Reduced To a Science. Hume offered the possibility that "so great is the Force of Laws, and of particular Forms of Government... that...

Practicing theory: management in HIV intervention.(do ideas matter? ACADEMY AND POLICY)
June 22, 2006... Between theory and policy comes practice. Practice is the implementation and execution of theories that can inform the direction and nature of policymaking. Tackling HIV and AIDS in India has several well-established theoretical underpinnings,...

Bridging the divide: when policy profits from research.(do ideas matter? ACADEMY AND POLICY)(Lawrence Summers)(Interview)
June 22, 2006... In an interview with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), you said, "If one wants to understand why some countries are more successful and some countries are less successful, the answer lies overwhelmingly in their own policy choices." Is...

Dogmatic dangers: when policymaking rigidifies ideas.(do ideas matter? ACADEMY AND POLICY)(Zbigniew Brzezinski)(Center for Strategic and International Studies)(Interview)
June 22, 2006... In the 1950s, working with Carl Friedrich, you developed a theory of totalitarianism that specified the characteristics of a new kind of dictatorship, using state terror to create a social order holistically organized in support of an...

The rights idea: knowledge, human rights, and change.(do ideas matter? ACADEMY AND POLICY)(Irene Khan - Amnesty International)(Interview)
June 22, 2006... Amnesty International is committed to the principles of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Did this document invent the concept of human rights or express latent ideas? Where did the idea of human rights arise? ...

The future of US civil society: civic engagement after September 11.(AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT PUTNAM)(Interview)
June 22, 2006... ROBERT PUTNAM is Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. His works include Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000) and Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1993). ...

Trade and Justice; Marc A. Miles reviews Fair Trade For All: How Trade Can Promote Development.
June 22, 2006... For more than 50 years, the world's countries have attempted to undo the terrible harm inflicted by inter-war and post-World War II protectionism. Starting with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which has evolved into today's...

Torture in the war on terror: Kenneth Roth reviews Protecting Liberty in an Age of Terror.
June 22, 2006... How can we prevent the fight against terrorism from degenerating into a downward spiral of torture and detention without trial? The traditional answer is to push for tougher enforcement of laws against such abuse. Protecting Liberty in an Age...

Misunderstood: Political Islam in Southeast Asia.(ENDPAPER)
June 22, 2006... Southeast Asia--home to more than 250 million Muslims and to the largest Islamic country in the world--has experienced a perceptible intensification of Islamic militancy after September 11, 2001. The futility of the US-led war in Iraq and the...