April 2008

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What can the international community do about corruption?

The results from Zimbabwe's election recount are nearly complete. A CNN source indicates that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai led with 47% of the vote to incumbent President Mugabe's 43%. After 28 years in power, Mugabe's campaign of violence and intimidation has resulted in international pressure for him to step down. Rampant corruption, food shortages, and over 100,000% inflation continue to plague the country's nearly 13 million people....

April 30, 2008
Olivier Kamanda
April 2008

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Wall Street: The New Front of the War on Terror

As the human, financial and diplomatic costs of the War in Iraq continue to mount - five years later - America's geopolitical equity spirals downward in inverse proportion. In this time, world leaders, influence peddlers and scholars have explored new ways to meet the threat posed by terrorism in an effective, yet sensible manner...

April 30, 2008
John Sheehan
April 2008

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The Iraq Barometer: Sobering Milestones Frame the Conflict on the Ground

March 19, 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq. Our time there has spanned longer than both World War II (three years, eight months) and the Civil War (four years). Only the Vietnam War (eight years, five months) and the Revolutionary War (six years, nine months) have engaged America longer. Four days later, on March 23, 2008, four U.S. soldiers died in a roadside bombing in a neighborhood in southern Baghdad, bringing the death toll to a haunting 4,000 Americans...

April 30, 2008
Robert Friedman
April 2008

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The New Czar: Russia's Relations with the West Under Medvedev

On March 2nd, Dmitry Medvedev was elected the next president of the Russian Federation. He will succeed Vladimir Putin when he is sworn into office on May 7. A Putin protege, the youthful Mr. Medvedev served under Mr. Putin as First Deputy Prime Minister and was also chairman of the enormous Russian gas giant, Gazprom. Medvedev is considered much more liberal than his mentor, causing many around the world to believe his arrival in the Kremlin will bring change to Russia's world agenda. Yet, after the election, Medvedev was quoted as saying, "We will be able to preserve the course of President Putin." Will Medvedev's Russia act differently than Putin's or will Russian resurgence continue?...

April 30, 2008
Ryan Kaiser
April 2008

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China's Military Rise

On March 4th, China announced its intention to increase military spending next year by 17.6% to $59 billion. The increase is on top of last year's boost of 18%. U.S. Defense officials believe China's actual spending is over $100 billion annually, and have expressed specific concerns with the type of military programs China is pursuing...

April 30, 2008
Marc Korman
April 2008