MATTHEW JACOBS
[Fall 2009, Volume X, Issue I]
INTRODUCTION
On December 3, 2007 the United States intelligence community made public certain key judgments of a classified national intelligence estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear intentions and capabilities. The estimate’s surprising conclusion—that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003—clashed with the prevailing consensus that Iran was determined to develop nuclear weapons. This paper seeks to shed light on the flaws in the NIE that led to its erroneous conclusion.
The NIE’s most significant flaw is its failure to characterize Iran’s ongoing “declared civil” uranium enrichment …

BOB ROEMER
[Fall 2006, Volume VIII, Issue 1]

Students in the Crisis Response Practicum in Northwestern University’s Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate program are required to analyze a crisis and present their findings to their colleagues. Over the past seven years they have researched more than 100 crises and, as you might imagine, have identified some similarities that shed light on why organizations succeed or fail in crisis response. Here are some of their findings.

EVENT VS. BEHAVIOR
In many cases, an organization’s response to an event can shape public opinion even more than …

JENNIFER MANN
[Fall 2006, Volume VIII, Issue 1]
Why is the United States particularly reluctant to ratify major international treaties that bind countries to uphold human rights while claiming to be the world’s champion for these rights? Unlike many of its closest allies in Western Europe and much of the non-Western world, the United States since the mid-1950s has been exceedingly slow to ratify many of the most important international human rights conventions and covenants. The United States for example first signed the Genocide Convention in 1948 but did not officially …

PETER H. MERKL
[Winter 2007 Volume XX]
In his Second Inaugural Address, President George W. Bush proclaimed the promotion of “democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world,” as a major goal of his second term, directly connected to the war on terrorism and to his rationale for invading Iraq.  There is no question that this goal is intimately related to American traditions going back to the Declaration of Independence and, in fact, to the aspirations and progress of liberal democracy …

NICOLAS PETER
[Winter 2007, Volume XX, Issue VII]
INTRODUCTION
Since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the U.S.S.R, the United States has been the dominant geopolitical actor in the world, with the Western European states as its allies. Furthermore, trans-Atlantic relations were an important axis of cooperation in foreign policy, the economy, science and technology, and especially space activities. The U.S. policy regarding international space activities has in the last few decades evolved and fluctuated between cooperation and competition, depending on the topic and the times. The US has …

JENNIE KEOHANE
[Spring 2008, Volume IX]
As the United States relentlessly pursues the war on terror, concerns for international human rights, while never a high priority, have been relegated to the very bottom of the list. Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, the torture memos, indefinite detention without trial, warrantless eavesdropping, and secret CIA prisons are just some of the violations uncovered thus far (“Straightening the Record”). Internationally, events of the twentieth century have also shown a flagrant disregard for human rights. Take for example Bosnia, Rwanda, the Holocaust, and Srebrenica (to name a few). …

DR. PHILIPPE R. GIRARD
[Winter 2007, Volume XX, Issue VII]
Haiti is a small country of nine million people occupying the western one-third of the island of Hispaniola. It is politically unstable, overpopulated, and poor. Its farming sector, which employs a majority of the workforce, suffers from deforestation, soil erosion, fragmented land ownership, and minimal productivity. It has few natural assets save its people. Abroad, it is known mostly as a place hellish enough for millions of boat people to risk their lives in the dangerous crossing to Florida in a desperate …

ANA-MARIA SINITEAN
[Spring 2008, Volume IX]
I met Victor the summer of 2006 at the Romanian Baptist Church in Paris. Victor had been living in Paris for the past two years, having come as an 18 year old from Romanian Moldova to find work abroad. He quickly hooked into the larger Romanian network in Paris, he works for Romanians, lives with Romanians, and attends church events. Victor is also enrolled in a language school to learn French and attends classes after work. Just recently, he took an entrance exam to the Music …

SHANKAR MURUGAVELL
[Winter 2007, Volume VII]
ABSTRACT
The use of torture has become a politically heated debate in the United States since the attacks of September 11th. Proponents of torture argue that it is a necessary tool in the “war on terror,” while opponents argue that it undermines the values of America. This article takes a deeper look into the issue and concludes that torture, under any circumstance, should not be legalized.
For much of the past halfcentury, there has been a prevalent bias against torture in American society; it has been widely viewed …

While classical inter-state wars tend to decrease in the post-Cold War era, there are many other serious threats to international peace beyond the full control of nation-states, most notably ethnic conflicts, religious militancy, terrorism, North-South conflict, and unfair economic competition.