Peace and Security
Spreading Weapons in the Name of Peace
Hey, Bucko. Stop whining about this sour economy, and start thinking about the plight of others.
Trojan Drug Horse
Monroe Doctrine 2.0
Exerting neocolonial power isn’t easy. The politics often turn brutal, and torture was long a favorite technique of America’s dictator friends to keep themselves in power. Fashions change however, and now murder is the enforcement vehicle of choice. It’s especially aimed at labor leaders and journalists.
Pop Goes Our Anti-Poppy Policy in Afghanistan
Recently, I found myself humming the Old Beatles song: “Poppy Fields Forever.”
Rattling Democracy in Latin America
In late September, tear gas and the smoke from burning tires filled the air as Ecuador’s president was held hostage in a police hospital.
The Lineup: Week of September 20-27, 2010
Here’s what you’ll find in the latest OtherWords editorial package.
No Happy Ending in Honduras
Honduras isn’t drawing the waves of tourists Costa Rica has lured. And that’s not just because its food is lackluster. Honduras is experiencing the worst political turmoil in Latin America–thanks in part to the Obama administration’s embrace of a regrettable U.S. foreign policy tradition.
Gun Violence and Children
Somalia, whose government collapsed in 1991, has been in a constant state of conflict and tension for years and still has no legally recognized government. The United States joins Somalia as the only two countries in the world not to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty recognizing the human rights of children that UNICEF points out is the most widely and rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history.
Remembering Ronni
Until 9/11, most Americans didn’t believe that a terrorist attack could ever happen on U.S. soil. Yet one had occurred just a generation earlier–on September 21, 1976 on Embassy Row in Washington. One of the victims was New Jersey-born Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a 25-year-old college graduate and newlywed. She was killed on her way to work, as the car she was riding in succumbed to a car bomb planted by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Orlando Letelier, her colleague and the car’s driver, also perished.
Game Time for New START
After 20 hearings and more than four months of debate, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is gearing up to vote on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed in April.
