Barbara Crossette

Barbara Crossette is The Nation's United Nations correspondent. A former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, she is the author of several books on Asia, including So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1995 and in paperback by Random House/Vintage Destinations in 1996, and a collection of travel essays about colonial resort towns that are still attracting visitors more than a century after their creation, The Great Hill Stations of Asia, published by Westview Press in 1998 and in paperback by Basic Books in 1999. In 2000, she wrote a survey of India and Indian-American relations, India: Old Civilization in a New World, for the Foreign Policy Association in New York. She is also the author of India Facing the 21st Century, published by Indiana University Press in 1993.

Currently

  • The World's Women Stuck in the UN's Blind Spot

    November 17, 2009

    "Mainstreaming" a focus on women into all of the United Nations' work never happened. So will an agency for women ever get off the ground?

  • Keeping Focus on Fighting Genital Mutilation

    November 3, 2009

    Is the campaign to fight female genital mutilation meeting new resistance not only in traditional societies but among Western anthropologists?

  • Putting Caste on Notice

    October 26, 2009

    Navi Pillay is the first UN human rights commissioner to take on caste discrimination.

  • US-UN Ties Still Strained

    October 2, 2009

    Barely a week after Barack Obama plunged into the UN for three unprecedented days, our reconciliation with the organization is already showing fault lines.

  • Huge Hurdles to Nuclear and Energy Reform

    September 25, 2009

    At the UN this week, Barack Obama told the world to stop complaining about US hegemony and start working with Washington on big global problems. He should take his own advice.

  • At the UN, Obama Moves In

    September 22, 2009

    This week's UN General Assembly session will be memorable not so much for what is said by the lineup of world leaders as for the sustained involvement of one of them: Barack Obama.

  • Upset at Unesco: Bulgaria Wins Top Job

    September 21, 2009

    In a surprise victory, Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova becomes the first female and first Eastern European head of Unesco.

  • Factoring People Into Climate Change

    September 14, 2009

    More and more experts now say that climate change and population increase should be viewed together. Local politicians in developing countries often try to heat up the issue.

  • Obama Unshackles Global AIDS Work

    September 1, 2009

    With the change in Pepfar guidelines, the Obama administration opens new opportunities to link AIDS work and family planning and strengthen health systems in developing countries.

  • Abdullah Abdullah's Unmentioned History

    August 24, 2009

    Abdullah Abdullah exemplifies a political chameleon in a country tortured by wars and violence.

  • Corrupt Democracy in India

    August 7, 2009

    Despite vast advances in India's economy, human rights in one of the world's largest democracies remain a major issue. From abuses by police to political violence, India has a long way to go toward protecting the basic rights of its citizens.

  • Clinton Comes to India

    July 21, 2009

    On her first trip to India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got some promises and some pushback on climate change and nuclear weapons.

  • Ecuador President's Bold Economic Plan

    June 26, 2009

    Rafael Correa came to the United Nations this week armed with the usual anti-US rhetoric--but also with a plan for Latin American economic empowerment.

  • Icons of the New Iran

    June 23, 2009

    Neda Agha-Soltan has become a powerful and tragic icon of the new Iran--and an emblem of just how much women have lost in the thirty years of Islamic rule.

  • Ban's Way

    June 17, 2009 Subscribe

    UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is halfway through his first term. Whether he gets a second term depends on his ability to get results.

  • In India Election, Moderation Rules

    May 17, 2009

    Defying expectations and boosting hopes for stability, Indian voters rejected extremism and caste divisions, to give a decisive victory to Congress Party moderates.

  • More Trouble for Nepal

    May 5, 2009

    Just as tourism returns to the nascent Himalayan democracy, new political discord could derail economic recovery and a constitution.

  • America's UN Boycott Backfires

    April 20, 2009

    By choosing to boycott the UN conference on racism, the United States has increased the clout of Iran's Ahmadinejad and undermined global efforts to defeat intolerance.

  • Thailand's Tranquility Crumbles

    April 14, 2009

    As mob violence and political strife destroy Thailand's reputation as Southeast Asia's magic kingdom, the fortunes of Vietnam and Indonesia are rising.

  • The UN vs. Israel: The Gaza Fallout

    April 7, 2009

    A UN investigation of Israel's attacks on Gaza may put the US in the middle of a tense dispute between the international body and Israel.

  • US Envoy Writes of Israeli Threats

    March 31, 2009

    In a forthcoming memoir, John Gunther Dean writes about not only pressure from pro-Israeli officials in Washington but attempts on his life for reaching out to the Palestinians.

  • Pakistan in Turmoil

    March 15, 2009

    Pakistan's Chief Justice is restored after protests rock Lahore, but questions remain about the stability of President Asif Ali Zardari--and new challenges for the Obama administration.

  • Lakhdar Brahimi: Afghanistan's Future

    March 9, 2009

    In an interview with The Nation, a veteran UN envoy assesses the Obama administration's evolving policies on Afghanistan and the role President Hamid Karzai might play.

  • Slumdog Subtext

    February 23, 2009

    Slumdog Millionaire captivated global audiences, but in India, it strikes a different nerve--as a tale of personal recompense and revenge by a young Muslim victim of Hindu persecution.

  • How Will Obama Engage on Human Rights?

    February 9, 2009

    Bipartisanship promises to be even harder to achieve on human rights than it is on a stimulus package. Two pending decisions at the United Nations will reveal the depth of the administration's commitment.

  • 'Global Gag Rule' Lifted

    January 25, 2009

    With little fanfare, Obama has reversed one of the most damaging GOP policies ever visited on developing nations, which deprived millions of women of family planning services.

  • Detroit's Impaired Vision

    January 16, 2009

    In the end, it wasn't shoddy products or high wages that put the US auto industry on the ropes. It was a failure to innovate for global markets.

  • Tet 2009: Vietnam Ponders its Future

    January 12, 2009

    As the season of Tet begins, questions of human rights, widespread corruption and a new novel highly critical of Ho Chi Minh, are giving Vietnamese much cause for reflection.

  • Will Peace Finally Come to Sri Lanka?

    January 6, 2009

    Decades of civil war have all but destroyed once-progressive Sri Lanka. Now that the army is closing in on Tamil rebels, what chance is there for real peace now?

2008

  • Q & A with Lakhdar Brahimi: What Next for Gaza?

    December 29, 2008

    Lakhdar Brahimi, a leading UN troubleshooter in the Middle East weighs in on the crisis in Gaza and speculates on how it may affect Obama's presidency.

  • Farce Meets Justice in Khmer Rouge Trial

    December 17, 2008

    A troubled UN-backed court seeks retribution from tottering Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity; Cambodians wonder if the costly legal exercise is worth it.

  • India's Muslims

    December 3, 2008

    The deep grievances of marginalized Indian Muslims are a source of major societal rifts, exacerbated by the anti-Muslim propaganda of Hindu fundamentalists.

  • The Battle for Human Rights

    December 3, 2008

    Which idea of human rights will prevail: Western notions of freedom from fear or poorer nations' insistence on freedom from want?

  • Peace Prize Comes With Criticism

    November 30, 2008

    As Martti Ahtisaari receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo today, it's clear that the hard work of peacemaking does not guarantee universal acclaim.

  • Thailand in Chaos

    November 27, 2008

    Its airports shut, Thailand is now ungovernable, as an educated elite attempts to overthrow the populist government it couldn't defeat at the ballot box.

  • UN: Hope that America Rejoins the World

    November 5, 2008

    Quiet relief, an undercurrent of caution and hope for a new approach to human rights, the environment and the problems of the poor.

  • Peaceful Revolution in Maldives

    November 3, 2008

    An island nation long gripped by authoritarianism votes for democracy--and wins.

  • Father d'Escoto's United Nations

    October 29, 2008

    The General Assembly's new president is a champion for the world's most dispossessed.

  • India's Persecuted Christians

    October 29, 2008

    Members of India's poorest classes who converted to Christianity to escape the caste system now find themselves the targets of brutal persecution by Hindu nationalists.

  • Listen to the Women

    September 14, 2008

    As the UN meets today to assess its plan to heal a suffering world, the billions of women who still lack fundamental rights--especially reproductive rights- must be heard.

  • After Musharraf

    August 19, 2008

    Pervez Musharraf is history, but his opponents seem unable to agree on what to do next. After so many disappointments, can Pakistan rise to the occasion?

  • New Era for Pakistan--and Kashmir?

    August 18, 2008

    The resignation of Pervez Musharraf and a looming election in India offer hope that with the right leadership, the sixty-year faceoff over Kashmir might finally be resolved.

  • Women's Advocate Is UN's New Human Rights Chief

    July 27, 2008

    Despite the Bush Administration's scramble to scuttle her nomination because she is--gasp!--a feminist, a South African judge is named high commissioner for human rights.

  • The Bureaucracy of Rape

    June 30, 2008

    Pressured by the Bush Administration, the United Nations issues a ringing declaration and solicits pledges that decry rape as a weapon of war. How about actually doing something?

  • The Clintonian Legacy

    April 27, 2008

    Bill Clinton's foreign policy record, on which his wife is running, was anything but stellar.

2007

  • Benazir Bhutto: An Age of Hope Is Over

    December 27, 2007

    As the world mourns the loss of Benazir Bhutto, it would be myopic to focus only on Islamic-inspired violence and on Pakistan. For all of post-independence history, South Asia has been a region drenched in blood.

  • State of the World 2008

    December 24, 2007

    The United Nations' chief troubleshooter and mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, considers what should come next in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and how US foreign foreign policy went so far astray.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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