Search

Begin New Search Publishing Institution World Policy Institute

141. Inside Mexico's Drug War

Author:
Tomas Kellner and Francesco Pipitone
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
AGUASCALIENTES, Mexico—Just before noon on February 15, 2007, four municipal police officers in Aguascalientes, the picturesque capital of the central Mexican state bearing the same name, were called to a mundane road accident. An overturned, black Chevy Suburban with out-of-state license plates was blocking traffic on the quiet Boulevard John Paul II that runs through the city's sleepy western suburbs.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Mexico

142. High Times on the Silk Road: The Central Asian Paradox

Author:
David Lewis
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
In medieval times, traders carried jewels, spices, perfumes, and fabulous fabrics along the legendary Silk Route through Central Asia. Today, the goods are just as valuable, but infinitely more dangerous. Weapons and equipment for American troops in Afghanistan travel from west to east, along the vital lifeline of the Northern Supply Route. In the other direction, an unadvertised, but no less deadly product travels along the same roads, generating billions of dollars in illicit profits. As much as 25 percent of Afghanistan's heroin production is exported through the former Soviet states of Central Asia, and the UN's drug experts express grave concerns. Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN's Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), claims that the “Silk Route, turned into a heroin route, is carving out a path of death and violence through one of the world's most strategic, yet volatile regions.” A report from his office asserts that there is a “perfect storm spiraling into Central Asia” with drug trafficking funding terrorist groups and insurgency, fostering instability and conflict, and leaving a host of health problems behind. This should be a wake-up call to Central Asian governments. Yet, oddly, nobody seems to care very much.
Topic:
Crime and Government
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, America, and Central Asia

143. The World's Top Cop: A Talk with Ronald K. Noble

Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
From the uniquely global perspective of Interpol, do you see much change—up or down—in the scope, the reach, or the frequency of corruption? And, is there a chicken and egg syndrome when it comes to the nexus of corruption and crime?
Political Geography:
United States and Paris

144. On the Run: In Burma's Jungle Hell

Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Lush forests, raging rivers, and steep hills circle Burma's central plain from west to east like a giant horseshoe. It is an idyllic landscape, home to Hsar K'Tray Saw, a 13- year-old Karen boy who lost his sight when a landmine planted by Burmese soldiers exploded outside his village. It is also where a 37-year-old mother was gang raped by half a dozen soldiers in a rice field; where the body of an unknown porter lays rotting down a jungle trail, shot as he was trying to escape enslavement by the Burmese Army; where old, young, and infirm villagers alike grab their few possessions and flee into the jungle, hiding from merciless army patrols like hunted game for weeks, months, sometimes years. In short, this is a land of fear.
Political Geography:
Burma

145. Imagining Iraq, Defining Its Future

Author:
Missy Ryan
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
BAGHDAD, Iraq—In a neglected graveyard, headstones of British soldiers lie discarded in the sand, sheared off by nearby bomb blasts, toppled by vandals, and crumbled by the passage of 90 years since these young men died in an unfamiliar desert land while their generals and statesmen conjured up a country called Iraq. The British war cemetery, which sits on the edge of a Baghdad thruway, is one of the visible reminders of the first Western occupation of modern Iraq, when European powers divvied up the spoils of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I and British administrators endowed Iraq with the foundations of a modern state.
Political Geography:
Iraq and Europe

146. The Myth of a Kinder, Gentler War

Author:
Michael A. Cohen
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Shortly after he assumed command of all U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal provided his soldiers with operational guidance for fighting insurgent Taliban forces. McChrystal's words directly reflect the Pentagon's new model of U.S. warfare and inform the philosophy behind the current U.S. military escalation in Afghanistan: “The ongoing insurgency must be met with a counterinsurgency campaign adapted to the unique conditions in each area that: protects the Afghan people, allowing them to choose a future they can be proud of; provides a secure environment allowing good government and economic development to undercut the causes and advocates of insurgency.”
Topic:
NATO and Insurgency
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and United States

147. Bosom Buddies? Ban and Obama's Curious Relations

Author:
Stephen Schlesinger
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Last summer a remarkable secret memo surfaced that rocked the traditionally calm corridors of the United Nations secretariat, while at the same time highlighting the depths of the problems faced by the UN secretary-general. Spineless, ineffectual, lacking in charisma and above all “conspicuous in [his] absence at critical moments,” the memo from the distinguished deputy chief of mission of Norway only highlighted publicly what many had known for some time: Ban Ki-moon is in deep trouble. At the same time that Obama appears to have his own problems with Congress and America's worsening economic problems, the UN chief is faced with having to find his own way out of a wilderness.
Political Geography:
United Nations

148. Both a Borrower and Lender Be Can Islamic Microfinance Bring Peace to Palestine?

Author:
Kenneth E. Barden
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
RAMALLAH, Palestine—Mahmod Ismail Oda is a farmer, raising a variety of leafy vegetables in a small greenhouse in the northern part of the West Bank outside of Jenin, some 25 kilometers from the border with Israel. The land here is rocky and hilly and a great amount of effort is required to turn this land to productive use. Two years ago, Oda needed money to obtain some plastic housing to protect his vegetables from the elements. Unfortunately, the $5,000 he needed was not an amount that commercial banks were particularly interested in servicing, nor did Oda possess the collateral typically required in conventional loan arrangements. Oda, a devout Muslim, is in his mid-40s and still full of energy. But, as the father of a young family, he feared being encumbered by a debt he could not readily repay. Oda found his answer in a new model of financing, one that blends micro-loans with respect for Islamic law, or shariah. In stepped Reef Finance, just one of a number of nascent institutions that may play a major role in bringing a level of prosperity, even peace, to the rural communities of the West Bank.
Topic:
Debt

149. Buying Time in Afghanistan

Author:
Carl Robichaud
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Afghanistan is increasingly seen as Iraq in slow motion. It is not. The headlines of car bombs and casualty tolls echo each other, but mask deep differences in each society and in the dynamics of each insurgency. As Iraq has descended into civil war, Afghanistan's center has held. The government remains weak, but power holders and the public show no appetite for a return to internecine fighting. The insurgency remains solvent because of safe havens across the border in Pakistan, but has been unable to expand upon its toehold in Afghanistan or offer a compelling alternative to the status quo.
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq

150. Iraq's Oil Law: Parsing the Fine Print

Author:
Kamil Mahdi
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
In May 2007, a draft Oil and Gas Law was sent by the Iraqi cabinet to Parliament, and according to government plans, it was to have been passed into law by the end of May. The law faces strong popular, technocratic, and political resistance—indeed in early June, the new Iraqi military was in the southern oilfields with a warrant to arrest leaders of the Iraq Federation of Oil Unions who oppose core sections of the law and who demand that no law is passed without consultation with civil society and themselves as principal elements within it. Parliament subsequently went into summer recess without considering the draft.
Political Geography:
Iraq