Global Solutions Quarterly 08/29/2006 Conducted by Michael Shank H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa is the President of the sixty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly. Prior to being elected President, she was serving as Legal Adviser to the Royal Court in the Kingdom of Bahrain. One of the […]
Author: Michael Shank
The Boomerang Effect
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE / DAILY NEWS EGYPT 08/23/2006 By Michael Shank The Bush Administration’s policies in the Middle East were originally sold as a means of encouraging democracy. What they’re actually doing is fostering a growing pan-Islamicism. The Bush administration calls it the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), a frighteningly […]
Interview with Noam Chomsky
The Citizen Diplomat 08/15/2006 Conducted by Michael Shank and Courtney Erwin How is the latest crisis in the Middle East different from ones before? In other words, is there a new dimension to the relationship between Israel-US and the Arab world, Arab-Muslim world? First of all there are three crises […]
RI Military in Urgent Need of Reform
JAKARTA POST 08/14/2006 By Michael Shank and Hasballah Saad The United States Congress recently passed a contentious bill that allocates over US$6 million to Indonesia for military equipment and training in 2007. Two checks will be issued: $4.5 million under Congress’ Foreign Military Financing program and $1.28 million under Congress’ […]
Somalia: Revisiting Afghanistan’s Failed Policy?
ARAB NEWS 08/13/2006 By Michael Shank & Khadija Ali From Afghanistan to Latin America, recent history suggests that the US policy of funding militias that operate outside a national government structure has negative long- and short-term consequences. The militias are difficult to control and they do not have a vested […]
The Arab League Has Failed to “Fulfill the Hopes and Expectations” of Somalia
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE / DAILY STAR EGYPT 08/11/2006 By Michael Shank and Khadija Ali A perpetual landmine for interventionists, Somalia has witnessed its share of inept approaches. Early in the conflict, the United States precluded any possible mediator role by denigrating the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) with Al-Qaeda and […]
Middle East Media Outlets Need to Start Countering the Bias of American Stations
THE DAILY STAR 07/13/2006 By Michael Shank Broadcasting its message throughout the Middle East, the US government’s communications campaign is extensive, strategic and extremely well financed. From Radio Farda in Iran to television’s Al-Iraqiyya in Iraq, the US government operates a multi-million dollar marketing campaign most intensively in Iraq and […]
US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement: A Model for Climate Change Action and Social Movements
GMU 2006 By Michael Shank Abstract: Over seven-hundred U.S. mayors are signatories to the Mayors Climate Protect Agreement, which commits each signatory’s city to aggressive emissions reduction standards. The seven-hundred-plus signatories represent a social movement that is unparalleled in the U.S.; no other public or private organization is exhibiting this […]
Interview with Samantha Power
Global Solutions Quarterly 05/11/2006 Conducted by Michael Shank Samantha Power is a Professor of Human Rights Practice at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her book, “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide, was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction, the 2003 National Book […]
Social Justice is the Will of the People: An Interview with Noam Chomsky
SEATTLE JOURNAL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE Vol. 3, Issue 2, Spring/Summer 2005 By Michael Shank The Transforming Social Justice section of this issue explores what social justice is, what the social justice movement has accomplished, and whether the movement should transform itself to confront today’s most pressing issues effectively. Mr. Noam […]