North America Archive

The U.S. intelligence community recently completed its first National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on the implications of global climate change for U.S. security. Although the report remains classified, senior intelligence officials have begun presenting its major findings in Congress and at various think tanks. Most media commentary covered the findings of the NIE, but not the more interesting process by which the conclusions were reached. By the admission of the person in charge of the effort — Thomas Fingar, deputy director of National Intelligence for Analysis and Chairman of the national Intelligence Council — the climate change topic presents serious methodological […]

HISTORICAL NOTE — Many of the 200,000 or so Germans who thronged the Tiergarten in Berlin to listen to Barack Obama may see him as another John F. Kennedy, but Obama didn’t yield to the same temptation of throwing a German phrase into his speech — and getting it slightly wrong. In 1963, when Kennedy spoke at the Berlin Wall, Berliners roared their approval when the president said he identified with them, even if his historic phrase “Ich bin ein Berliner” translates as “I am a doughnut.” What Kennedy meant to say was “Ich bin einer Berliner.” Twenty-four years later […]

“If China is winning, the United States must be losing.” That is precisely the principle that many Americans see at work not only in the world, but also in the Middle East. China’s surging manufacturing capacity has contributed to the steep decline in manufacturing jobs in the United States. U.S. businessmen worry about the consequences of Chinese firms taking over U.S. firms such as Unocal and 3Com and scuttle the deals. U.S. bankers agonize over China’s massive current accounts surpluses and its huge dollar holdings. Many perceive China to be a military threat too, expanding its reach in the Pacific […]

BERLIN — The dust having settled now following Barack Obama’s history-making, if not perhaps history-defining, speech here, German media today all seem to conclude the same thing: Was that it? After days of newspaper coverage and speculation about what Obama might say, Germans got their answer yesterday: A well-received, though general, address on the past, the present and the importance of unity moving into the future. The speech lasted 28 minutes. Some in attendance could be heard saying, “A little short.” So high were the expectations surrounding his address, and so often were references to the historic Berlin speeches of […]

Today, the Center for a New American Security releases a report, “Strategic Leadership: Framework for a 21st Century National Security Strategy,” that sketches the broad outlines of a recommended U.S. national security strategy for the next president of the United States. The centrist but Democratic-leaning CNAS, founded by two former senior staffers of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has existed for a little more than a year. But the report grew out of a project known as the Phoenix Initiative, which according to CNAS began three years ago as a collective effort of a number of U.S. foreign […]

NAIROBI, Kenya — Since Sen. Barack Obama early last month secured the Democratic nomination for U.S. president, Obama fever, already widespread, has become an epidemic in this country where the senator’s father was born. “Everyone now claims that he or she is a cousin of the senator,” said Tom Ombaka, a businessman in Kisumu, the lakeside city where many of Obama’s relatives make their homes. “I have met more than 60 people since Obama won endorsement to run for the presidency . . . who claim they are the senator’s blood relatives.” Even Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, has hopped […]

During the past week, representatives of civil liberty groups and the U.S. government have feuded over how many people were on the watch list of individuals suspected of being potential terrorists. The American Civil Liberties Union held a recent news conference to publicize their calculation that the database now includes more than 1 million names, whereas homeland security officials claimed that “only” 400,000 people were included. Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU’s Washington legislative director, called the growth in the size of the terrorist watch list “unfair to travelers, unfair to law-abiding Americans and unfair to the security screeners who have to […]

MEXICO CITY — The now-infamous June 20 nightclub raid was supposed to be a crowning moment, a public relations coup, for Mexico City’s newest police force. Police vans waited nearby, ready to haul off up to hundreds of offenders — drug users, drug dealers, minors drinking booze, and club staff taking kickbacks to ignore these crimes. Even some members of the media were given front row seats to watch the cops from Unipol — the recently launched cooperative unit comprised of beat cops and investigative police — send its team up the stairs of the dingy antro, as such clubs […]

MEXICO CITY — President Felipe Calderón spent the week leading up to the second anniversary of his narrow election victory July 2 touring Southeastern Mexico, where he promoted the main tenets of his administration: security; structural reforms; and social programs. While inaugurating a baseball stadium in Cancún that was built with funds from a public security program, he spoke of the Mexican military destroying a “world record” amount of cocaine and seizing more than 16,000 weapons over the past year. The president also got his hands dirty mixing cement in a Campeche home as he promoted “Piso Firme,” a program […]

American voters are not the only ones who experience U.S. political theater. Nearly every major newspaper in the world covers developments in the 2008 presidential election pitting Republican Sen. John McCain against Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. Perhaps no other story is covered as frequently around the globe. A close second, however, may be the story of Iran, and international efforts to prevent the Iranian regime from developing nuclear weapons. In fact, both of these story lines regularly overlap, as both U.S. presidential candidates pronounce on policy toward Iran. On domestic policy matters, the policy pronouncements of candidates do not themselves […]

The daring rescue this week of hostages held by Colombian rebels marks a milestone in Colombia’s transformation, a transformation the Colombian people had already recognized. Now, the rest of the world should acknowledge Colombia’s imperfect, but no less miraculous, turnaround. With the release of Ingrid Betancourt, along with three American contractors and a group of Colombians, some in the United States may pause for a moment to ponder the horrific crime of kidnapping. Growing up in Colombia, we pondered it a lot, picturing not only ourselves in captivity, but also, knowing what a kidnapping does to a family, our relatives. […]

WASHINGTON — Eleven U.S. states have adopted legislation to divest public pension funds from companies with financial ties to Iran’s petroleum, defense, and nuclear sectors in an attempt to persuade Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program and alleged sponsorship of terrorism. Almost 20 more states are considering similar legislation to supplement existing federal and international sanctions. This is the first time that state investments have been leveraged for nonproliferation goals. During the 1980s, anti-apartheid activists urged state and local authorities and some universities to divest holdings from companies invested in or doing business with South Africa. During the […]

Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga is accused of committing some truly awful crimes. Forcibly conscripting children as young as 10 into the brutal, tribal combat of eastern Congo tops the list, which is why he was turned over to the International Criminal Court at The Hague in 2006. Lubanga’s trial was supposed to be the ICC’s first case and its first test. But with the trial now indefinitely delayed due to prosecutorial misconduct, the ICC has failed the test. No one should be surprised by this. The problems with the ICC’s ability to try the Lubanga case stem from the prosecution’s […]

The Canadian foreign minister recently resigned for leaving classified documents at a girlfriend’s house, and in France this week, the army chief of staff swiftly resigned after live rounds were fired into the public during a training exercise. Rapid, kneejerk resignations are a common tool in global politics, a way to admit fault or to take the heat for the leader or party after a particularly embarrassing incident. As the George W. Bush administration wanes, it is interesting to note that while there have been many resignations, few have been of this nature, and almost none at high levels. Since […]