Humans love to suppress abstract dangers. They react only after they get their fingers burned. In handling nuclear risks, however, we can hardly get away with such childlike behavior. To begin with, the old system of nuclear deterrence, which has survived particularly in the United States and Russia since the Cold War’s end, still involves …

The hope for social and industrial awakening in the Middle East and North Africa may start in unexpected ways. The most potent indicator of social change is women s education. Nine years of schooling for every woman would wipe out a large segment of poverty. It would also significantly reduce children s school dropout rates …

For more than 40 years Turkey has been taking certain measures to reach the European Union criteria of a member state. As part of a drive to increase innovation in and access to technology, the EU has allocated more than 100 billion euros for the i2010 Program to create a Single European Information Space , …

Last month, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, gave a nuanced, scholarly lecture in London about whether the British legal system should allow non-Christian courts to decide certain matters of family law. Britain has no constitutional separation of church and state. The archbishop noted that the law of the Church of England is the law …

It is hardly noteworthy by now that Saad Eddin Ibrahim s pro-democracy activism and work toward social justice has been troubling to the Egyptian regime, to say the least. After several encounters with authorities, the professor is still politically active, and continues to work toward tangible political and social reform in Egypt and the Arab …

One of our worst shortcomings is the lack of future planning. Why do we always wait for a disaster to strike before dealing with the causes, instead of thinking ahead to prevent it from happening in the first place. We don’t build flyovers, for instance, until the roads become unbearably congested, at which point the …

It is not yet foredoomed that the world economy will undergo a substantial recession in the next three years or so: we might still escape. But governments should play it safe by starting to take more steps now to cushion, soften, and shorten the period of high unemployment and slow or negative growth that now …

On April 2-4, NATO will hold its biggest summit ever in Bucharest, the capital of its new member, Romania. Incredibly, NATO has invited its fiercest critic, Russian President Vladimir Putin, to attend. For the first time since 2002, he will. His presence is an embarrassment to NATO, but an even greater disgrace for Russia. The …

The German Islam Conference has achieved its first concrete result: Muslim religious education will be introduced as a subject in German schools from next year. The move was agreed upon by representatives of the state and its Muslim population – in spite of what was sometimes a bitter controversy. A number of Muslim participants wanted …

The United States has reached a point where almost half its population is described as being in some way mentally ill, and nearly a quarter of its citizens – 67.5 million – have taken anti-depressants. These eye-popping statistics have sparked a widespread, sometimes rancorous debate about whether people are taking far more medication than is …

The film Bam 6.6 weaves the drama of Tobb and Adele, a Jewish-American, with other accounts of the catastrophic natural disaster that killed more than 40,000 people and destroyed 90 percent of the buildings in the historic city of Bam, which means high place , in southern Iran. It goes beyond the tale of these …

While it may be difficult to remember, George W. Bush was once considered a debater who could match wits with the likes of Al Gore and John Kerry. This judgment was the result, at least in part, of Bush’s uncanny ability to transform claims that he was stupid into support for America’s position in the …

On March 14, the otherworldly calm of Lhasa, Tibet’s holy city, was shattered by riots and gunfire. The spark that triggered unrest in the Tibetan part of what is now a largely ethnic Han Chinese city is unclear, but occurred somewhere near the Ramoche Temple when Chinese security forces attempted to stop a demonstration by …

America’s presidential election campaign is being followed in Europe with passionate interest. It is seen as a long saga full of surprises. The human and intellectual qualities of the three remaining candidates are even viewed with some envy on this side of the Atlantic, where you can hear statements such as: “Could we borrow just …

The upcoming second round of talks with the United States on Iraq Security offers another opportunity for US-Iranian dialogue and negotiations. However, an atmosphere of mistrust between the United States and Iran persists, leaving open the potential for yet another disastrous conflict in the Middle East. Ongoing isolation and diplomatic sanctions will not reduce such …

WASHINGTON-In April, the United Methodist Church s General Assembly will vote on whether or not to divest its holdings in companies that do business with Israel. The Methodists divestment campaign is not the only one of its kind. There are hundreds of efforts throughout the world which have as their goal ending investment in Israel …

In Paris, West Berlin, London, and Rome, the spring of 1968 was marked by student protests against the Vietnam War. In Warsaw, too, students were protesting, but their cause was not the same as their Western counterparts. Young Poles took to the streets of Warsaw not to chant “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh in solidarity …

The National Democratic Party (NDP) has the right to nominate whoever it wants from among its members to compete in municipal elections, but it does not have the right to prevent other candidates, especially those belonging to legitimate political parties, because this is a constitutional right for all citizens. However, what has happened is that …

In spite of its ongoing political crisis, an institutionally crippled Lebanon is performing well on a front it ironically has little experience in: counterterrorism. Five months after the Lebanese army s bloody though ultimately successful battle in the North against the al Qaeda-inspired group, Fatah al Islam, Lebanese are still concerned about a repeat of …

Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP who plans to release an anti-Islamic film this month, will never lead his followers to the Promised Land. He does not promise milk and honey. He can only deliver civil strife. He is living politically on the very conflict he claims to want to prevent. The more extremist the reaction …

As the United States and the world mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, debates are raging about the consequences – for Iraq, the Middle East, and America’s standing in the world. But the Iraq war’s domestic impact – the Pentagon’s ever mushrooming budget and its long-term influence on the US economy – …

One of many reasons for Dick Cheney’s jaunt to the Middle East is a desire to stabilize the global oil market, presumably by putting pressure on regional oil producers to kick in some extra supply. In addition to being a bad idea like nearly everything cooked up by the ideologically-bereft hawks running Washington, the real …

Beneath the hanging tree branches of a garden that has lost its lushness, amid traces of an ancient beauty, farmer Saber and I sat together. He owns six acres of land. He was crippled after an injury in the 1973 October War. His elder brother Abdel-Naby, a bank employee in Damanhour, sat beside him. Abdel-Naby …

On Feb. 9 2008, 411 out of 550 members of parliament voted in support of the reform for a constitutional reform that would relax the ban on wearing headscarves – or hijab – in Turkish universities, and to amend the constitution. The amendment states that the state will treat everyone equally when it provides services …

There has been considerable progress on achieving the Millennium Development Goals since their inception in 2000. But, despite the best efforts of governments, reaching those goals by the 2015 target date still remains a distant prospect for many countries, not the least of in Africa. Many of us in Africa’s private sector are keen to …

Every day in the Gaza Strip, strategic deterrence – the inhibition of attack by a fear of punishment backed up by superior military power – is being put to the test. The escalating spiral of violence by Israel and Gazan militants indicates not only that deterrence is failing, but also that its effectiveness depends on …

The US seems to enjoy sending its most hated figures to the Middle East to promote its most unpopular policies. Shipping Dick Cheney off to the region is like sending Danish cartoonists to Cairo to improve Muslim-Christian relations. Cheney’s brief is clear – to create enthusiasm for the continued isolation of Iran and its nuclear …

Here s a truism of Middle East diplomacy. Everyone knows the outline of the eventual settlement: there will be two states, one Israeli, one Palestinian, alongside each other, their borders roughly in line with the parameters set out by Bill Clinton in late 2000. Everyone knows that. Yet somehow the two sides cannot seem to …

The Chief Prosecutor of Turkey’s High Court of Appeals recently recommended to the country’s Constitutional Court that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) be permanently banned. Only last July, the AKP was overwhelmingly re-elected in free and fair elections to lead the government. The Chief Prosecutor also formally recommended that Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, …

What with the banging and honking for the government we see in some newspapers and the attacks and defamation we see in others, the real reader who merely seeks documented information and objective analysis, finds himself completely at a loss. A journalist friend of mine complained to me in anger at how the media refers …