|
|
|
|
The World Today
August/September 1998
Even by Nigeria’s standards political events over the past few months have been extraordinary. With the death of the head of state, General Sani Abacha, from a heart attack in June, swiftly followed by the death of the imprisoned opposition leader Chief Moshood Abiola in similar circumstances, Nigeria has been plunged into a crisis as deep as that which led to the outbreak of civil war in 1967.
Dr Kurt Barling is a BBC News Correspondent and former Lecturer in International Relations at the London School of Economics.
Dr Sola Akinrinade is Senior Lecturer in International History at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and Chapman Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
A United Nations eminent persons panel is studying the violence in Algeria which has taken tens of thousands of lives over the last six years. Discovering just what is going on is at the heart of the search for a solution. Our two articles on Algeria look at how facts are obtained, manipulated and interpreted.
Dr Claire Spencer is Deputy Director of the Centre for Defence Studies, King’s College, University of London.
Following on from Claire Spencer’s article, this article looks at international intervention in Algeria.
Marc Marginedas was Correspondent in Algiers for the Spanish daily newspaper El Periodico from 1995 until earlier this year - one of just a handful of foreign journalists based there. He now reports from Moscow.
Japan’s economic success was for many years the object of admiration and envy. This has largely been from the consumer point of view: we have looked to Japan as the producer of so many ‘necessities’: the car, the PC, the mobile phone, the Walkman. Japanese investment in the USA and Europe has been welcome, not only for the jobs it created, but also, in Britain, for the stimulus to changes in the workplace. Japanese management techniques were widely admired. But curiosity is now suddenly transformed into a deep concern that the economic crisis, compounded by the ruling party’s leadership problems, will be a major threat to the stability of the world economy.
Christopher Purvis is a consultant specialising in Japan, and an advisor to Warburg Dillon Read, whose Tokyo branch he previously managed.
As the long-simmering conflict in Kosovo flared up again, politicians started issuing warnings that Kosovo must not be allowed to become another Bosnia. The comparison may be misleading in a number of ways. But on one level there is a danger that Kosovo could end up resembling Bosnia-Hercegovina. If the situation gets completely out of control, Kosovo could suffer the same kind of mass killings, ethnic cleansing and destruction that accompanied the war in Bosnia. For Bosnia itself however the political outlook looks brighter ahead of the September elections.
Gabriel Partos is the South-east Europe analyst of the BBC World Service. He last wrote for The World Today on the Balkans in April 1997.
Germany will enter the new millennium in very different shape from the divided land of Cold War years. Now unified and soon to be part of the Euro zone, its new capital will move the centre of gravity to the East. The political choices are demanding and may require grand solutions.
Alan Watson is Chairman of the British-German Association, Honorary Professor in German Studies at Birmingham University and European Chairman of Burson-Marseller.
A look at the emerging radical right in Western Europe, and its challenge to the stability of the region.
Martin Schain is Professor of Politics and Chair of the Center for European Studies at New York University.
Aid workers may save lives, but an increasing number are risking their own in the process. Only by clearly defining what they are doing, for whom and why, can proper protection be provided.
Mark Cutts is Research Officer (Policy) at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The views expressed are his and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR.
In the year since the Asian economic crisis began with trouble in Thailand, the world has become familiar with the excesses of crony capitalism and corruption. Changing such bad practices is now high on the agenda of international organisations. International business welcomes this but wants everyone to play by the same rules.
John Bray is Principal Research Consultant at Control Risks Group (CRG) in London. CRG’s report, Corruption and Integrity: Best Business Practice in an Imperfect World, will be published in August.
A look at corruption in the ‘Asian miracle’ countries.
Peter Rooke is Chief Executive of Transparency International (TI) Australia and Tunku Abdul Aziz is the organisation’s co-ordinator for Malaysia.
By accident or design, a significant number of countries deny their people the rights to which they are entitled under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When multi-national companies trade with such countries the skills, jobs and foreign currency they bring impact, to a greater or lesser extent, on the human rights situation. Whether this is beneficial or detrimental depends in part upon each company’s policy on human rights. Through engagement or disengagement firms have the power to influence the lives of millions.
Helena Leeson is a Director of Aegis Systmes Ltd and is currently completing her PhD in human rights and multi-national companies at Birkbeck College, University of London.
Oil pipeline companies are keen to ship Central Asian oil and gas across Afghanistan. But their activities raise several moral problems: should they be trying to ‘bag’ security; what about the human rights issue and would Afghans generally benefit from the revenues?
Dr William Maley is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and recently edited Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (London: Hurst & Co, 1998).
Cuba has not been treated like other countries emerging from the Soviet shadow. Nevertheless it is restructuring its economy with surprising success. But would an end to more than thirty years of American inspired sanctions achieve what they have so conspicuously failed to – a change of regime in Havana?
Alan Shipman is a transition economies analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London.
Ethnicity and conflict.
Anita Inder Singh is a Fellow in the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.