Think Again

Think Again: AIDS

Two decades and billions of dollars into the fight against AIDS, the world still has a long way to go in arresting the epidemic. The cash that donor governments roll out with much fanfare won't make a dent so long as misperceptions persist about how we are winning and losing the battle against the disease.

BY TINA ROSENBERG | MARCH 1, 2005

Think Again: U.S. Foreign Aid

Shortly after a tsunami swept through the Indian Ocean last December, a U.N. official complained that the West was stingy with its relief donations. Stung by this criticism, the Bush administration increased its financial pledge tenfold overnightwhile loudly asserting that the United States actually led the global pack in foreign aid. Is the worlds wealthiest country a scrooge or a savior?

BY STEVEN RADELET | MARCH 1, 2005

Think Again: Alan Greenspan

U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan is credited with simultaneously achieving record-low inflation, spawning the largest economic boom in U.S. history, and saving the world from financial collapse. But, when Greenspan steps down next year, he will leave behind a record foreign deficit and a generation of Americans with little savings and mountains of debt. Has the world's most revered central banker unwittingly set up the global economy for disaster?

BY STEPHEN S. ROACH | JANUARY 5, 2005

Think Again: Middle East Democracy

People in the Middle East want political freedom, and their governments acknowledge the need for reform. Yet the region appears to repel democracy. Arab regimes only concede women's rights and elections to appease their critics at home and abroad. If democracy arrives in the Middle East, it won't be due to the efforts of liberal activists or their Western supporters but to the very same Islamist parties that many now see as the chief obstacle to change.

BY MARINA OTTAWAY, THOMAS CAROTHERS | NOVEMBER 1, 2004

Think Again: Bush's Foreign Policy

Not since Richard Nixon's conduct of the war in Vietnam has a U.S. president's foreign policy so polarized the country -- and the world. Yet as controversial as George W. Bush's policies have been, they are not as radical a departure from his predecessors as both critics and supporters proclaim. Instead, the real weaknesses of the president's foreign policy lie in its contradictions: Blinded by moral clarity and hamstrung by its enormous military strength, the United States needs to rebalance means with ends if it wants to forge a truly effective grand strategy.

BY MELVYN P. LEFFLER | SEPTEMBER 1, 2004

Think Again: Mercenaries

"How is it in our nation's interest," asked U.S. Sen. Carl Levin recently, "to have civilian contractors, rather than military personnel, performing vital national security functions... in a war zone?" The answer lies in humanity's long history of contracting force and the changing role of today's private security firms. Even as governments debate how to hold them accountable, these hired guns are rapidly becoming indispensable to national militaries, private corporations, and non-governmental groups across the globe.

BY DEBORAH AVANT | JULY 1, 2004

Think Again: Al Qaeda

The mere mention of al Qaeda conjures images of an efficient terrorist network guided by a powerful criminal mastermind. Yet al Qaeda is more lethal as an ideology than as an organization. "Al Qaedaism" will continue to attract supporters in the years to come -- whether Osama bin Laden is around to lead them or not.

BY JASON BURKE | MAY 1, 2004

Think Again: Human Rights

The concept of human rights is the mother's milk of the international community. Problem is, these days human rights come in more flavors than coffee or soft drinks. Would you like the Asian, Islamic, indigenous, economic, European, or U.S. version? And how would you like your human rights served: with sanctions, regime change, corporate window dressing, or good old-fashioned moral suasion? Here's a look at the most effective -- and most misguided -- recipes for promoting human dignity around the world.

BY RICHARD FALK | MARCH 1, 2004

Think Again: Neocons

A cabal of neoconservatives has hijacked the Bush administration's foreign policy and transformed the world's sole superpower into a unilateral monster. Say what? In truth, stories about the "neocon" ascendancy -- and the group's insidious intent to wage preemptive wars across the globe -- have been much exaggerated. And by telling such tall tales, critics have twisted the neocons' identities and thinking on U.S. foreign policy into an unrecognizable caricature.

BY MAX BOOT | JANUARY 1, 2004

Think Again: International Trade

Why have disagreements between rich and poor nations stalled the global trading system? Because vapid debates over "fair trade" obscure some inconvenient facts: First, notwithstanding their demands for equity, poor countries are more protectionist than advanced economies. Second, if rich nations cut their self-defeating agricultural subsidies, their own publics would benefit, but consumers in many poor countries would not. Finally, despite criticisms to the contrary, the WTO can help promote economic development in low-income countries -- but only if rich nations let the global body do its job.

BY ARVIND PANAGARIYA | NOVEMBER 1, 2003

Think Again: The United Nations

Bureaucratic. Ineffective. Undemocratic. Anti-United States. And after the bitter debate over the use of force in Iraq, critics might add "useless" to the list of adjectives describing the United Nations. So why was the United Nations the first place the Bush administration went for approval after winning the war? Because for $1.25 billion a year -- roughly what the Pentagon spends every 32 hours -- the United Nations is still the best investment that the world can make in stopping AIDS and SARS, feeding the poor, helping refugees, and fighting global crime and the spread of nuclear weapons.

BY MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT | SEPTEMBER 1, 2003

Think Again: War

Which is more representative of modern war: The United States unleashing high-tech arsenals to defeat dubious Third World regimes swiftly or machete-wielding insurgents fighting brutal civil wars in Africa? The short answer: both. Yet neither of these scenarios conforms to the classic model of warfare as a titanic struggle between rival great powers. It's time to update the textbooks and reappraise the nature of war.

BY LAWRENCE FREEDMAN | JULY 1, 2003

Think Again: The Korea Crisis

North Korea is not crazy, near collapse, nor about to start a war. But it is dangerous, not to mention dangerously misunderstood. Defusing the threat that North Korea poses to its neighbors and the world will require less bluster, more patience, and a willingness on the part of the United States to probe and understand the true sources of the North's conduct.

BY DAVID C. KANG, VICTOR D. CHA | MAY 1, 2003

Think Again: Latin America

Is Latin America running out of chances? No miracle cure -- from privatization to property rights, from democracy to dollarization -- has ended the region's turmoil. With only token attention from the United States, Latin leaders need to find homegrown solutions. One place to start: more economic reform, not less, and less rule of law, not more.

BY CARLOS LOZADA | MARCH 1, 2003

Think Again: Power

The United States may boast a massive economy and whopping defense budget, but wielding true global power takes more than just greenbacks and green berets. These days the tools for projecting power are more varied and dispersed than ever. And as the clout of terrorist networks, diplomatic alliances, and international financiers seems to expand, lasting global supremacy may hinge on the skillful deployment of an increasingly elusive resource: moral authority.

BY NIALL FERGUSON | JANUARY 1, 2003

Think Again: Global Media

Big media barons are routinely accused of dominating markets, dumbing down the news to plump up the bottom line, and forcing U.S. content on world audiences. But these companies are not as big, bad, dominant, or American as critics claim. And company size is largely irrelevant to many of the problems facing today's Fourth Estate.

BY BENJAMIN COMPAINE | NOVEMBER 1, 2002

Think Again: Nation Building

Once, nations were forged through "blood and iron." Today, the world seeks to build them through conflict resolution, multilateral aid, and free elections. But this more civilized approach has not yielded many successes. For nation building to work, some harsh compromises are necessary -- including military coercion and the recognition that democracy is not always a realistic goal.

BY MARINA OTTAWAY | SEPTEMBER 1, 2002

Think Again: Yasir Arafat

In 1974, Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), declared before the United Nations that he came "bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter's gun." Nearly 20 years later, the world still does not know if Arafat is a statesman dedicated to peaceful coexistence with Israel or a resistance leader dedicated to armed struggle. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict enters a tenuous new phase of peace negotiations, understanding Arafat's true motives will be essential to fostering a lasting agreement.

BY DENNIS B. ROSS | JULY 1, 2002

Think Again: Tobacco

For tobacco control advocates, the tobacco industry is public health enemy number one: It sells a commodity that will kill 500 million of the 6 billion people living today. For governments, tobacco is both a health threat and a powerful economic force that annually generates hundreds of billions of dollars in sales and billions more in tax revenues. That clash of interests fuels a debate ensnarling everything from farm subsidies and export controls to healthcare spending, taxation, law enforcement, and free speech.

BY KENNETH E. WARNER | MAY 1, 2002

Think Again: Attacking Iraq

As the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan winds down, should Iraq become "phase two" in the war against global terrorism? Iraq hawks warn that Saddam Hussein’s arsenal of mass destruction and his fanatic hatred of the United States make him a paramount threat. Others counsel for continued diplomacy and the return of U.N. weapons inspectors, arguing that an attack on Iraq would destabilize the Arab world. To support their cases, both sides deploy cherished assumptions about everything from Saddam Hussein's sanity to the explosive volatility of the "Arab Street." But a skeptical look at the sound bites suggests that the greatest risk of attacking Iraq may not be a vengeful Saddam or a destabilized Middle East but the unraveling of the global coalition against terrorism.

BY MARK STRAUSS | MARCH 1, 2002

Think Again: Fundamentalism

For all the current focus on fiery Islamic extremists, religious fundamentalists are not confined to any particular faith or country, nor to the poor and uneducated. Instead, they are likely to spring up anywhere people perceive the need to fight a godless, secular culture -- even if they have to depart from the orthodoxy of their traditions to do it. In fact, what fundamentalists everywhere have in common is the ability to craft their messages to fit the times.

BY R. SCOTT APPLEBY, MARTIN E. MARTY | JANUARY 1, 2002

Think Again: Debt Relief

Debt relief has become the feel-good economic policy of the new millennium, trumpeted by Irish rock star Bono, Pope John Paul II, and virtually everyone in between. But despite its overwhelming popularity among policymakers and the public, debt relief is a bad deal for the world’s poor. By transferring scarce resources to corrupt governments with proven track records of misusing aid, debt forgiveness might only aggravate poverty among the world’s most vulnerable populations.

BY WILLIAM EASTERLY | NOVEMBER 1, 2001

Think Again: The Globalization Backlash

Lost your job? Your cultural identity? Your democratic rights? Your clean air and water? Blame globalization -- everyone else does. From Seattle to Copenhagen and Washington, D.C., to Genoa, protesters of all stripes and creeds have turned globalization into a shorthand for many of the world's ills. But judging by the widespread misconceptions about the true consequences of the integration of markets, politics, and cultures, a smaller world is not necessarily a smarter one.

BY JOHN MICKLETHWAIT, ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE | SEPTEMBER 1, 2001

Think Again: Russia

The Soviet Union stoked mythology by being a closed society, allowing people to allege just about anything without being exposed as wrong. Ironically, Russia's transformation into an open society has engendered its own mythology. With Russia's faults laid bare for all to see, Western politicians and media have commonly described the former superpower as a nation in decline, beset by corruption and a collapsing infrastructure. But most of these flaws are remnants of Soviet mismanagement only now being put right.

BY ANDERS ÅSLUND | JULY 1, 2001

Think Again: Money Laundering

From Moscow to Buenos Aires, money laundering scandals sap economies and destabilize governments. Policymakers blame crime cartels, tax havens, and new techniques like cyberlaundering. But dirty money long predates such influences. Without unified rules governing global finance, outlaws will always exploit disparate legal systems to stash the proceeds of their crimes.

BY NIGEL MORRIS-COTTERILL | MAY 1, 2001

Think Again: The Internet Economy

The markets may have soured on Internet start-ups. High-tech oases in countries like Malaysia and India may not lift their countries out of poverty. But all those dot-coms and Silicon Valley dreams never had much to do with the real economic impact of the Internet. The new economy is alive and well.

BY ROBERT E. LITAN | MARCH 1, 2001

Think Again: Sovereignty

The idea of states as autonomous, independent entities is collapsing under the combined onslaught of monetary unions, CNN, the Internet, and nongovernmental organizations. But those who proclaim the death of sovereignty misread history. The nation-state has a keen instinct for survival and has so far adapted to new challenges -- even the challenge of globalization.

BY STEPHEN D. KRASNER | JANUARY 1, 2001

Think Again: Clinton's Foreign Policy

Views on William Jefferson Clinton's record as a world leader have been sharply divided. Where supporters see pragmatic leadership and bold innovation, critics see improvised initiatives that have left America adrift. In preparation for the coming rash of retrospectives, FP's editors look at which aspects of the conventional wisdom are likely to stand the test of time.

BY FP EDITORS | NOVEMBER 1, 2000

Think Again: Spies

Virtually every nation resorts to the "dark arts" of espionage to protect its government, economy, and citizens. But with the end of superpower conflict, the spread of democracy, the advent of new information technologies, and the emergence of a more transparent world, the central question about spying today is whether it is still necessary.

BY LOCH K. JOHNSON | SEPTEMBER 1, 2000