Emerging from the Taliban's grim legacy: an interview with Siddiq Barmak.
Siddiq Barnulk is a soft-spoken, self-effacing, roundish man in his early forties, with scruffy eyebrows and white strands in his jet-black hair. Much of what he has done in the past two and a half years is brand new to him--especially shooting his first film, having the gall to...

It's not what you do, it's how you do it.
The growing controversy in both Britain and the United States over Iraq's Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) has highlighted the difficulties of both gathering and assessing intelligence. The picture remains obscure but it appears that the intelligence on Iraqi WMD was at best extremely limited. During the...

Thaksin and the politics of domestic and regional consolidation in Thailand.
Introduction: Thai Politics and Foreign Policy (1988-2001) Chatichai Choonhavan's election and subsequent appointment as Prime Minister of Thailand in August 1988 marked a major turning point in Thai domestic politics and foreign policy. Despite having a military background as a Major General, Chatichai secured his victory through...

Military Coups in Africa: Unconditional Condemnation?
ABSTRACT A resolution of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), adopted during the Algiers summit in 1999, calls for the isolation of military governments. The question, however, arises whether some flexibility should not be retained. Obviously, in democracies, justification for military coups is hard to find (although...

RISKY BUSINESS.
More than at any time in recent memory, newspaper editors are leaving their jobs--voluntarily or involuntarily--without another one in sight. The changing nature of the business has made the coveted top newsroom position a precarious perch. ONE BY ONE, THE COUPS WERE CARRIED OUT SWIFTLY, OFTEN without...

THE FIJI ELECTION.
John Henderson comments on the outcome of the recent election in Fiji. Fiji faces a period of political uncertainty following the election in May of its first Indian-led government headed by the 56-year-old Fiji Labour Party (FLP) leader, Mahendra Chaudhry. In 1987 a similar outcome resulted in...

Winds of change.
A new breed of political elite is taking over from the old guard who ruled the Middle East for decades. Educated in the West and in their thirties, these new Arab leaders will shape the policies of the Middle East in the 21st century. The elevation of...

The Business Community of Seventeenth-Century England.
The Business Community of Seventeenth-Century England, by Richard Grassby. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1995. xxx, 615 pp. $74.95 U.S. Glorious, Bloodless, Respectable and Godly are words used to describe the Revolution of 1688-89, all the more remarkable, considering that event was not a revolution at all, but a...

City of Capital: Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution.
City of Capital. Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution, by Bruce C. Carruthers. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1979. xiv, 303 pp. $45.00 U.S. Glorious, Bloodless, Respectable and Godly are words used to describe the Revolution of 1688-89, all the more remarkable, considering that event was...

The World of William and Mary: Anglo-Dutch Perspectives on the Revolution of 1688-89.
William III and the Godly Revolution, by Tony Claydon. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1996 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modem British History). xiv, 272 pp. $54.95 U.S. Glorious, Bloodless, Respectable and Godly are words used to describe the Revolution of 1688-89, all the more remarkable, considering that event was...