The National Interest articles from March 2003

The National Interest archives from March 2003

Migration and the dynamics of empire.
March 22, 2003... THE FIRST decade of the 21st century; like the first decade of the 20th, is an age of empire. A hundred years ago, however, there were many empires. They included both the overseas empires of the national states of western Europe--particularly...

The transformation of national security.
March 22, 2003... Five Redefinitions PERHAPS THE key question of international politics and U.S. national security policy today is whether a genuinely new era has dawned since the end of the Cold War. It has. The attacks of September 11, 2001 did not create...

Imperial temptations.
March 22, 2003... AMERICA TODAY embodies a paradox of omnipotence and vulnerability. The U.S. military budget is greater than those of the next 1.4 countries combined and the American economy is larger than the next three combined. Yet Americans going about...

The death of conquest.
March 22, 2003... THERE HAVE been at least two elephants in the room since September 11, 2001. The one nobody wants to arouse is Islam; the one nobody wants to acknowledge is conquest. We don't "do" conquest anymore. Our presumptions seem to be that we shouldn't...

An empire, if you can keep it.
March 22, 2003... WITHOUT TOO much difficulty, an interested reader can in these early months of 2003 find numerous references to contemporary American imperialism in newspapers and journals of opinion. Attacks on American imperialism were, of course, easy to...

EuroIslam: the jihad within?
March 22, 2003... IF THERE WERE any question as to whether Middle Eastern-born Muslim radicals could wreak massive destruction in Western countries, it was answered on September 11, 2001. An important related question, however, remains on the table. Could future...

Out of Bali: cybercaliphate rising.
March 22, 2003... ON SUB-TROPICAL Sunday mornings in August, in the square outside the Fatahillah Museum in north Jakarta, cultural tableaux testifying to Indonesia's diversity take place. In one of them, a troupe of Balinese school girls performs the elegant...

Australian for alliance.
March 22, 2003... WHAT DOES IT mean for a middle-sized regional power to be a friend and ally of the United States in the 21st century? This question is being debated today among U.S. allies with an intensity not seen since the Vietnam War. The wounded hegemon...

The beginning of economic wisdom.
March 22, 2003... SINCE THEY affect to work scientifically, economists usually insist that the vast majority of the propositions in their writings report what virtually all other economists would report; principles and facts rule, and virtually all concur on...

Frog in the pot: Germany's path to the Japan syndrome.
March 22, 2003... JAPAN'S DECADE of decline is the worst fate suffered by an advanced economy since the Great Depression. Contraction in Japan, however, is not only Japan's problem-it is also a drag on the global economy. Japan's withdrawal of capital from Asia...

Taba mythchief.
March 22, 2003... AFTER THE U.S.-led coalition routed Iraq in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, President George H.W. Bush told Congress that he would vigorously pursue the Arab-Israeli peace process. Indeed, a landmark Middle East peace conference in Madrid...

Imperialism: the highest stage of American capitalism? (Books).(American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy)(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... Andrew J. Bacevich, American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 320 pp., $29.95. WHEN THE dust from the Soviet Union's collapse was still settling, the future of the...

Suffering. (Books).(A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis)(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... David Rieff, A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), 384 pp., $26. "BLURBING" is the publishing world's term for soliciting advance reviews from an author's colleagues for inclusion on a trade...

"The rudest man I ever met". (Books).(Cursed is the Peacemaker)(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... John Boykin, Cursed is the Peacemaker (Belmont, GA: Applegate Press, 2002), 512 pp., $29.95. JOHN BOYKIN, a writer and communications consultant in San Francisco, has written a clear, detailed and well-organized tribute to one of the...

Burying Nikita. (Books).(Khrushchev: The Man and His Era )(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (New York: W.W. Norton, 2002), 768 pp., $35. FOR THE BABY boomers among us, Nikita Khrushchev was the personification of the "Soviet bogeyman", the nuke-wielding, shoe-banging premier who...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2003... Power Steering: In response to Walter McDougall's interesting review of my book, The Ideas That Conquered the World ("Power Steering", Winter 2002/03), I should like to make five points. First, someone who has read the review but not the...

Continental divides. (Quarterly).
March 22, 2003... A GERMAN chancellor openly defying the United States? Accusing George W. Bush of "adventurism" and hurling an ever louder "no" across the Atlantic--a "nein" to war against Saddam under any circumstances? During the Cold War, America's...