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May 2009

commentary

The Cracks in Data Privacy
For almost 15 years, Europe has led the world in protecting personal data. At the EU level, it has done this through the data-protection directive adopted in 1995. But surveys such as one carried out by Eurobarometer last year illustrate that Europeans now feel insufficiently protected, write Lorenzo Valeri and Neil Robinson.
May 19, 2009

commentary

A Better Bargain for Aid to Pakistan
All told, since 2001, the United States has spent about $12 billion to help Pakistan. Yet last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared Pakistan a
May 30, 2009
commentary

Public Libraries Are Needed Now More Than Ever
What Pittsburgh attraction provides $3 of economic output for every public dollar invested? The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. If you find this factoid unlikely, it is because the research that discovered it received an astounding lack of attention, write Susan Everingham and Sally Sleeper.
May 29, 2009
commentary

Countering the Military's Latest Fad: Counterinsurgency
When Defense Secretary Gates announced that he was dismissing Gen. McKiernan as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and replacing him with Lt. Gen. McChrystal, he signaled his support for an intellectual movement that in a few short years has come to dominate military thinking in Washington, writes Celeste Ward.
May 17, 2009
commentary

Assessing Mexico's Narco-Violence
Drug-related violence in Mexico has more than doubled over the past 18 months, with a sharp increase in crimes that can only be understood as atrocities. The executions, assassinations, and decapitations may all seem wanton and senseless. But this violence actually has a purpose, write Benjamin Bahney and Agnes Gereben Schaefer.
May 14, 2009
commentary

Pakistan, Taliban and Global Security – Part II
For every good reason, the Obama Administration is devoting enormous thought to Pakistan. In my judgment, the evolving situation in Pakistan is potentially the most dangerous international situation since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, writes Robert Blackwill.
May 12, 2009
commentary

The Future of US-India Relations
The combination of our largely overlapping vital national interests and shared democratic values should produce a bright future for strategic collaboration between New Delhi and Washington in future decades. But in the immediate period before us, our bilateral ties are likely to be more problematical than we have seen in recent years. I want to stress that there is nothing inevitable about this, says Robert D. Blackwill.
May 6, 2009
commentary

Opposing View: Keep Arms Off Ships
Does the provision of private security contractors provide a viable solution to the growing problem of piracy off the Horn of Africa? Quite apart from the high cost — a robust security operation can run as much as $21,000 a day — employing security contractors poses problems on several fronts, writes Peter Chalk.
May 4, 2009