E-Notes

When the Arab uprisings were just beginning in Tunisia and Egypt in early 2011, few “experts” on the Middle East predicted the speed and extent of their spread. Still fewer analysts made analogies to the post-communist revolutions of 1989-91....

Introduction On March 27, 1979, Saddam Hussein, the de facto ruler and soon-to-be president of Iraq, laid out his vision for a long, grinding war against Israel in a private meeting of high-level Baathist officials. Iraq, he explained, would...

There have been other times in recent Canadian history when circumstances were going very nicely, thank you, north of the 49th parallel. The period immediately before the 2008 recession was such a time with record exports, low inflation/unemployment/interest rates,...

By June 2011, the Arab revolutions had evolved into a series of disconnected but increasingly violent civil wars—particularly in Libya and Syria. The international community has certainly not been spared the effects of these wars. As a long-time patron—if...

Beijing’s current Taiwan policy is likely to remain in place as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) begins a transition from the so-called fourth-generation leadership headed by President and Party General Secretary Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to...

The current state of U.S.-Taiwan relations leaves much to be desired. A recent analysis describes the island’s narrowing options, tracing a trajectory toward absorption by China. Given a continuation of current trends, it is difficult to disagree with this...

Wasat al-Balad Demonstrations No Arab state has been able to ignore the sweeping changes of the Arab Spring. It has dominated the Arab language news, and changed the perceptions of millions about what is politically possible. Yet in each...

Statehood? The question of Taiwan’s sovereignty and status generally evokes three strands of discussion. First, does Taiwan meet the criteria for statehood or something very close to statehood in the international system—and specifically in international law? Here the locus...

The journalistic notion of an “Arab Spring” is faulty on two counts.  Climatologically, from Morocco to Yemen, it is absurd; there is no such season.  It is also misleading, because analogy with the “Prague Spring” of 1968 runs into...

CASABLANCA—Across the Arab world, we see mass demonstrations, armed revolts or messy, uncertain transitions to democracy — except in Morocco. That North African Arab country was thunderstruck when its king, in a June 17 speech, calmly called for a...