Global Culture
Items on Global development, immigration, environmentalism, wealth and poverty, and so on
Meet Mr. Adamov
Fri 13 Jul 2007 • Responses: 1 • by David Aikman
The Bush-Putin meeting brings back memories of Putin’s earlier career.
At the beginning of July, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with President Bush in the Bush family summer retreat at Kennebunkport, Maine. It could turn out to be one of the most crucial meetings in Russian-US relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Hold that Ad
Tue 10 Jul 2007 • Responses: 1 • by David Aikman
Perhaps China has been too successful at censorship.
It was some eighteen years ago that the world was trying to absorb what had taken place in China’s Tiananmen Square in Beijing on the night of June 3–4, 1989. Six weeks of sometimes chaotic, always spontaneous, and invariably exhilarating demonstrations had taken place in Tiananmen Square, after the death of Hu Yaobang, a Chinese leader associated with reform, on April 15.
Six Days and Forty Years
Mon 11 Jun 2007 • Responses: 2 • by David Aikman
David Aikman looks back on the Six Days War and its unexpected outcomes.
The Six-Day War of 1967 was one of the most startling military victories in history. In the course of six days, from June 5 through June 11, the Israeli Defense Forces essentially wiped out on the ground the air force of Egypt, crippled for years the air forces of Jordan and Syria, and triumphed over the armies of those three Arab states deployed against Israel.
More significantly, after just a few days’ fighting, Israel found itself in military control over 1.2 million Arabs in the West Bank (part of British Mandate Palestine and annexed by Jordan in 1950) and Gaza (before 1967 under the control of Egypt). Arabs killed, wounded, and imprisoned were in the scores of thousands; Israeli casualties were listed at the almost mythical level of 777 (which seems small but is a higher proportion of the 1967 Israeli population than all the 57,000 Americans killed during the Vietnam War).
The French Presidency
Tue 05 Jun 2007 • Responses: 2 • by William Edgar
Hope for the World?
Senior Fellow—and francophone—Bill Edgar considers the new President of France and his potential impact on the future of Europe.
Death Penalty Reconsidered
Fri 04 May 2007 • Responses: 2 • by David Aikman
Thoughts on Amnesty International’s death penalty statistics.
Amnesty International is an international human rights organization that draws attention on a regular basis to the plight of political prisoners in various countries of the world. But for many years it has had a standing campaign to abolish the death penalty.
Proponents of the death penalty have traditionally argued that it is needed by society to provide retributive justice and to grant some sort of emotional “closure” for the families of murder victims. Opponents argue that it is inherently barbaric, that it is an irreversible punishment if the executed person turns out to be innocent, and that it doesn’t deter murder at all. Proponents tend to regard Amnesty International as an international meddling group determined to impose do-good liberalism on everyone else. Opponents regard it as a champion of global humanity, civilization, and progress.
