Early conflicts over colonialism and genocide explain many of the United Nations’ modern-day failures.
Sasha Polakow-Suransky
Sasha Polakow-Suransky is a senior editor at Foreign Affairs. His book, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, will be published by Pantheon next May.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Indictment or Challenge?
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster, 264 pages, $27.00) Before it was even released on November 14, Jimmy Carter’s new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, caused an uproar. The implied analogy in the title between contemporary Israel and the old South Africa drew a chorus of denunciations from Jewish […]
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Hoodwinked
MIAMI — As Florida’s deadline for sending overseas absentee ballots approached in mid-September, most election observers were waiting with baited breath for the outcome of a Supreme Court decision regarding Ralph Nader’s eligibility for the ballot. But Glenda Hood, Jeb Bush’s handpicked secretary of state, was busy urging counties to print ballots including Nader’s name […]
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Who Killed Camp David?
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace By Dennis Ross • Farrar, Straus and Giroux • 864 pages • $35.00 The historic Camp David talks during the summer of 2000 failed, so the conventional wisdom goes, because Yasir Arafat rejected an extraordinarily generous offer that Ehud […]
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Cabin Fever
On August 30, as the Republican convention kicked off in New York City, the Log Cabin Republicans, a group representing gay and lesbian members of the GOP, began airing an ad in New York City and in cable-TV markets across the country. The ad features images of Rudy Giuliani, Ronald Reagan, and other conservative icons […]
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War Torn
LONDON — The festive mood of the crowd that gathered in the streets surrounding London’s Euston Station last Thursday afternoon to protest George W. Bush’s visit to Britain seemed at odds with the other news of the day. Drums beat wildly, hippies danced, fathers hoisted toddlers onto their soldiers. Few seemed to know or care […]
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Bad Medicine
For the third time in as many decades, doctors across the country are protesting rising medical-malpractice insurance premiums. The American Medical Association (AMA) is promoting its long-standing goal of medical-liability reform in the shape of a $250,000 cap on “pain and suffering” (noneconomic) damages in malpractice cases. Karl Rove must be thrilled. For an administration […]
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Giving the Poor Some Credit
Microcredit for the poor is one of those ideas that attracts both liberals and conservatives. In principle, even the world’s poorest people can acquire habits of savings and investment — if they have access to capital. The strategy is both redistributive (liberal) and entrepreneurial (conservative). Why is it necessary? Conventional banking institutions usually write off […]
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Free Market Furies
World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability By Amy Chua, Doubleday, 340 pages, $26.00 Amy Chua’s new book is not likely to receive a warm reception at the Department of State, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. For more than a decade, the received wisdom in […]
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Epidemic Denial
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — In late December 2002, South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), gathered in the plush university town of Stellenbosch for its 51st National Conference. That members elected President Thabo Mbeki to lead the ANC for another five years came as no surprise; more noteworthy was the announcement of […]