Are we ready for the first missionary president? While the media debates endlessly whether America can overcome racism and sexism and finally elect an African-American commander-in-chief or a female to the White House, there’s been very little consideration of what it might mean to have a former missionary in the Oval Office. Like many Mormons,… Continue reading Missionary Zeal
South Korea’s new president underwent his own personal green revolution when he became mayor of Seoul. In charge of major construction projects at Hyundai for three decades, Lee Myung-bak reversed himself in the new millennium. He made rivers spring from concrete and grass grow where there had once been only cars. President-elect Lee now has… Continue reading A Green Bulldozer
Roumen Yanovski, ACCESS On the media Despite the changing laws, the international position, and the emergence of two generations, there has been extremely limited change in Bulgaria in terms of ideas about ethnicity and ethnic groups. A lot of people would disagree with me. But this is what I feel, and it is the saddest… Continue reading Interview with Roumen Yanovski
Albert Heta, curator and artist On art and conflict Recently, the communication between Serbia and here has been flowing more openly. In 2006, when the Stacion Center for Contemporary Art organized two symposiums – one called, “Cultural Policies as Crisis Management?”, the other “Altered Identities: On Nationalism and Contemporary Art” – we aimed to… Continue reading Interview with Albert Heta
Nigar Goksal of European Stability Initiative On the United States An opinion poll conducted by the ARI Movement last year revealed that 80 percent of the Turkish population holds a negative opinion of the United States. When we broke down the question further, we found that while most people felt negatively toward the Bush administration,… Continue reading Interview with Nigar Goksal
Tan Morgul, Turkish journalist On internal immigration In the old model of migration – and this applies to other cultures as well as to the Kurdish population – one individual would come and settle in a neighborhood. If he did well in Istanbul, he would call his other relatives. They would come to settle near… Continue reading Interview with Tan Morgul
On corruption The only thing missing in the Kosovo government is a legal ministry of corruption. Everybody knows it, but nobody cares. They are immune to criticism. In our first elections – the first elections in our history – 92 percent of the people voted. The disappointment came so fast. Nobody can do anything now… Continue reading Interview with Arben Castrati
“Spreading the Word,” Foreign Policy In Focus, December 19, 2007 “Take the Plunge,” World Beat, December 17, 2007 “A Return to Diversity in the Balkans?” The American Prospect, December 13, 2007 “The Paradox of East Asian Peace,” Foreign Policy In Focus, December 13, 2007 “Eighth Circle of Hell,” World Beat, December 3, 2007 “The Shadow of Vietnam,” Internationale Politik, Winter… Continue reading 2007 Archives
Review of Andrei Lankov, North of the DMZ (McFarland and Co., Inc. 2007), 346 pages. In general, scholars love the countries they study. Those who focus on Nicaragua can’t wait to visit the country. Experts on Morocco eagerly await the day they can live there to do fieldwork or archival research. But when… Continue reading North of the DMZ (Review)