Dmitri Rogozin, the Russian envoy to NATO, speaking of a NATO defense plan for the Baltic states, recently asked, “Against who else could such a defense be intended? Against Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, against polar…
THAILAND: AN INDEPENDENT STATE? Thailand (formerly Siam) is unique among Southeast Asian states because it was able to avoid being directly colonized by a Western power. This is a source of great national pride for…
In his work “Capitalism and Democracy,” Gabriel Almond explained that Schumpeter, an academic writing during World War II, “projected a future of declining capitalism, and rising socialism.”1 A look at recent events in America (including…
Thailand has had a turbulent history. The only country in Southeast Asia to avoid European colonization, Thailand has proven to be subject to many of the same problems of its less fortunate neighbors: frequent military…
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has had a very painful history when it comes to human rights. The PRC has only recently accepted any responsibility to conform to international human rights norms and law….
This was a review of a video interview given by Noam Chomsky to Democracy Now! You can see the interview for yourself at http://www.democracynow.org/2006/3/31/stream. After listening to this interview and reading the transcript, I was…
One thing I find extremely interesting is how China is trying to expand its ties to Iran. China is planning to expand its rail infrastructure to include a railway line to Iran. Aside from the…
Both the Middle East and the Caucasus are filled with discontent, instability, and terrorism. These two regions, so different culturally and historically, have three common sources of instability and violence. First, both regions are unstable…
The Middle East is facing water shortages throughout the region, due to rapid population growth in an area with little water to begin with. In large part this could be alleviated by importing food supplies…
National identity based on a pluralist, secular state with constitutional guarantees of protection for ethnic, tribal, and sectarian minorities has the greatest potential for social coherence in the Middle East. In the film Lawrence of…