Feingold proposes ban on Senate appointments Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) has introduced a constitutional amendment that would require elections to fill vacant seats in the Senate, prohibiting governors from filling the seats by appointment. The proposal has its downsides, but it will quite possibly become our 28th amendment, a fact we have good reason to … Read more
The struggle to forge a successor to the Kyoto Protocol “Anthropogenic warming could lead to some impacts that are abrupt or irreversible,” warned the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a 2007 report. This dire prophecy concerns the whole world; while developing nations are perhaps most at risk due to their limited adaptive capacities, all … Read more
Can black politicians transcend race? Barack Obama was an unlikely standard-bearer for black politicians. He did not work his way up through the ranks of the black establishment and his ties to the old guard of black politics like Jesse Jackson or John Lewis are tenuous and recent. His political presentation is not traditionally “black,” … Read more
The future of the WTO and the Doha trade round July 29, 2008 witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round, high-level negotiations aimed at lowering trade barriers between countries. Immediate reactions were varied, reflecting international ambivalence about globalization. Free traders viewed the collapse as a disaster, poverty activists as a moral failure, … Read more
How globalization is a game-changer for nuclear security “Unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013,” the Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and … Read more
New Labour is still the defining movement of British politics “This our hope: not just to promise change but to achieve it. New Labour. New Britain.” In the 1997 parliamentary elections, these words won Tony Blair the largest victory of any prime minister since Clement Attlee. Yet “New Labour” was more than a catchy slogan; … Read more
Managing the global resource of water “The next world war will be over water,” the former Vice President of the World Bank, Ismail Serageldin, once proclaimed. The very nature of water as a natural resource lends itself to conflict — it is a universal necessity, and often flows from sovereignty to sovereignty, defying ownership. Considering … Read more
Midterm elections already loom Each election cycle seems to begin the day its predecessor ends. Since the midterm elections will affect President Obama’s ability to enact major pieces of his long-term agenda, it is already worthwhile to start examining the outlook for November 2010. The president’s party ordinarily loses congressional seats in the midterm elections. … Read more
New prospects for stable democracy Four years ago, the Iraqi national elections were riddled with fraudulent voting, sectarian boycotts, and insurgent attacks. Although the accomplishment of largely free and fair elections drew praise from onlookers around the world, the elections still suffered from violence and low turnout; this seemed to indicate how difficult, even impossible, … Read more
How the European Union’s rapid expansion threatens European unity The European Union has come a long way in a short time. What began as a six member coal and steel community in 1951 has evolved into a diverse political and economic partnership of 27 countries, representing 495 million people and over 30 percent of the … Read more