Current Analysis Running for Cover: The US, World Oil Markets and Iraq Last week's panic within the Clinton Administration over a potential winter spike in heating oil prices has greatly eased, as oil prices have begun to fall. The Democrats' political planners feared that Republican candidate George W. Bush and voters would blame Clinton and Vice President Al Gore for Chris Toensing • 4 min read
MER Article The Politics of Consensus in the Gulf As American and British warplanes flew into action over Iraq in December 1998, they blasted away not only Iraqi targets but also the remnants of international consensus. After the Gulf war, the Security Council authorized economic sanctions and intrusive inspections aimed at the elimination of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) Marc Lynch • 10 min read
MER Article Sanctioning Iraq After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 triggered the imposition of international economic sanctions, it was widely believed that the Gulf crisis would be rapidly resolved. The scale of Iraq's military defeat in the 1991 Gulf war suggested that the government would accept ceasefire terms, Sarah J Graham-Brown • 13 min read
Current Analysis Petition Charges Israel with War Crimes QANA, SOUTH LEBANON -- A sprawling mass tomb in the heart of this small hilltop village bears silent witness to a war crime committed by Israeli forces here one spring day in 1996. The town, less than five miles away from Israeli-occupied south Lebanon, is the site of a United Laurie King-Irani • 7 min read
Current Analysis UNICEF Establishes Blame in Iraq UNICEF'S recent reports on child mortality in Iraq provided ready fuel for the ongoing propaganda war over the future of sanctions. Iraq's representative at the UN has spoken of a "genocide" caused by sanctions while US and United Kingdom spokespersons, completely ignoring the sanctions' impact sinc Sarah J Graham-Brown • 6 min read
MER Article "Sanctions Have an Impact on All of Us" The following comments are excerpted from a speech delivered on Capitol Hill on October 6, 1998 by Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, shortly after he resigned his post in protest over the sanctions’ devastating impact on the Iraqi people. Denis Halliday • 2 min read
MER Article The Rise and Fall of the "Rogue Doctrine" Since 1990, US military policy has been governed by one overarching premise that US and international security is primarily threatened by the “rogue states” of the Third World. These states -- assumed to include Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Syria -- are said to threaten US interests because of Michael Klare • 13 min read
MER Article Alternatives to an International Criminal Court A scene toward the end of the documentary film Calling the Ghosts shows two Muslim women from Bosnia, survivors of the Serbian concentration camp of Omarska, looking through a rack of postcards. They have come to The Hague to testify about their experiences at the war crimes tribunal for the former Lisa Hajjar • 6 min read
MER Article Constructing an International Criminal Court From June 15 until July 17, 1998, diplomats from around the world are assembling an International Criminal Court (ICC). Complementing the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which hears disputes between governments, the ICC would investigate and try individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. An Joe Stork • 6 min read
MER Article Legalism and Realism in the Gulf In his State of the Union address in January 1998, President Clinton won thunderous applause for threatening to force Iraq “to comply with the UNSCOM regime and the will of the United Nations.” Stopping UN chemical and biological weapons inspectors from “completing their mission,” declared the presi Sheila Carapico • 7 min read
MER Article UN Impasse in the Western Sahara In his January 1996 report on the UN operation in the Western Sahara, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali expressed the Security Council’s “frustration...at the absence of even a reasonably clear indication of when the [referendum] process might come to an end.” This was one of Boutros-Ghali’s m (Author not identified) • 10 min read
MER Article The Iraqi Opposition and the Sanctions Debate The sanctions regime imposed on Iraq in August 1990, though always morally troubling, has only recently emerged as the subject of debate among Iraqi oppositionists. Most opposition groups supported sanctions either openly or tacitly until 1994, when this unity began to break down. Because the subject is politically sensitive, the Rend Rahim Francke • 9 min read
