JK Alternative Viewpoint

Laptops, radios, instant coffee, train-signaling systems, satellites—we are surrounded by products that rely on the same technologies and materials as weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The international community faces a serious challenge. Trade is globalized, technology is spreading rapidly, and demands for economic development and uninhibited exchange of goods are greater than ever. How can [...]

The writer was foreign secretary from 1994-97 and also served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran (1992-94) and the US (1990-91) At this time when all branches of government appear to be consumed by a contrived political crisis, it is perhaps a bit much for ordinary Pakistanis to expect that our politicians and our security establishment [...]

One year ago today, Egyptians took to the streets to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade-old dictatorship. As they waved flags and chanted for the fall of the regime, another ruler 1,200 miles to the east was calculating how to use their act of courage for his own profit. On Feb. 4, at the [...]

The flow of history sometimes looks so obvious in hindsight. In 2004 the European Commission issued a formal warning to Greece, having found that it had falsified budget deficit data in advance of joining the Eurozone. That’s right, Greece had not just failed to meet the budget requirements for joining the new currency — lots [...]

Separation of Church and State was one of the fundamental principles undergirding the new nation envisioned by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. Neither “God” nor any synonym for it appears anywhere in the Constitution. Article VI forbids any religious test “as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” And [...]

Howard Zinn, On War, introduced by Staughton Lynd (Seven Stories Press 2011), 272pp This collection ranks as one of the great denunciations of war. Above all it takes the notion of ‘good’ or ‘humanitarian’ military intervention to pieces. It has moral, practical and theoretical power, and is a handbook for radicals today, argues Chris Nineham. [...]

    The newly elected Egyptian parliament met for the first time yesterday. What does it mean for the revolutionary process in Egypt? The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has ruled Egypt since the fall of Mubarak. They had a very simple attitude to the elections. SCAF wanted to erect a façade of [...]

A pre-capitalist relation of production with a consumer-based economy having a large army thriving on an anaemic socio-political body is an ideal proposition for its hegemonic designs “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings” — this prophetic utterance of William Shakespeare aptly describes the indifference of [...]

Turkey has denounced as “discriminatory and racist” French legislation awaiting presidential approval that would make it a criminal offense to deny that a genocide of Armenians occurred. In a parliament address on January 24, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the bill was “null and void” for his country. He threatened that Ankara would implement [...]

The prognosis of a thirty-year war looked outlandish as Saddam’s regime toppled, persuasive as Iraq’s insurgency erupted – and now less plausible amid American forces’ retreat. But two core issues continue to give it life. In early April 2003, United States troops were moving towards Baghdad in the early stages of the bombardment and occupation [...]