The US Caged–For Now The US Caged–For Now
Alfred Hitchcock was fond of McGuffins--meaningless plot devices on which the characters obsess while the real, gruesome story moves on elsewhere.
Dec 5, 2002 / Editorial / Ian Williams
The Humanitarian Temptation The Humanitarian Temptation
In 2000, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan posed a question to the Millennium Summit of the UN: "If humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on s...
Nov 21, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Ian Williams
Human Rights at the UN Human Rights at the UN
The day after Mary Robinson stepped down as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, forced out by determined pressure from Washington, George W.
Oct 17, 2002 / Editorial / Ian Williams
The UN Gambit The UN Gambit
George W. Bush's decision to "involve" the United Nations in his plans to attack Iraq does not indicate a conversion to multilateralism on the road to Baghdad. Washington's con...
Sep 12, 2002 / Editorial / Ian Williams
Keeping the UN in Line Keeping the UN in Line
So far this year, US diplomats have secured the removal of Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights; José Bustani, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of ...
Jun 27, 2002 / Editorial / Ian Williams
Big Food’s Real Appetites Big Food’s Real Appetites
More than the much-reviled products of Big Tobacco, big helpings and Big Food constitute the number-one threat to America's children, especially when the fare is helpings of fats,...
Apr 18, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Ian Williams
Iraq: What the Butler Saw Iraq: What the Butler Saw
At the beginning of September, Hans Blix, head of UNMOVIC, the latest UN commission for verifying Iraqi disarmament, poised to report his new team's readiness to go into Iraq.
Sep 7, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Ian Williams
The Intervention Blues The Intervention Blues
Perhaps one of the most fatuous theories ever promulgated was Francis Fukuyama's "End of History," put forth just as, in most parts of the world, history resumed its sanguinary p...
Apr 27, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Ian Williams
Behind the Blue Helmets Behind the Blue Helmets
The new US envoy to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, has personal experience of how frustrating it can be to negotiate, even when speaking in the name of that mega-clich&ea...
Sep 9, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Ian Williams
The Case Against Inaction The Case Against Inaction
Sadly, some on the left are angrier about NATO's bombing than they are about the Serbian forces' atrocities, even though Milosevic's men have killed more in one Kosovan village ...
Apr 8, 1999 / Editorial / Ian Williams and Bogdan Denitch