Current Events - Columbia University Press Blog

April 30, 2009

Farzana Shaikh: The Vacuum That Rules Pakistan

Farzana Shaikh, author of the forthcoming Making Sense of Pakistan, recently argued in a recent op-ed in The Independent that “there is now an almost fateful inevitability that a major terrorist attack in the UK will carry a Pakistani imprint.”...

April 24, 2009

Laura Mitchell on the South African Elections

Laura J. Mitchell, author of Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa, An Exploration of Frontiers, 1725- c. 1830, recently contributed an article to Huffington Post about the upcoming elections in South Africa. Despite its many problems South...

April 21, 2009

"Obama Was Right to Release Torture Memos." — Jameel Jaffer

Yesterday, we featured Jameel Jaffer’s interview with Glenn Greenwald on Salon and today we point your attention to Jaffer’s post on the Free Speech Blog. Jameel Jaffer, who is the co-editor with Amrit Singh of Administration of Torture: A Documentary...

April 20, 2009

Jameel Jaffer Interview with Glenn Greenwald and Salon

“Simply political documents that were meant to provide window dressing for war crimes.”—Jameel Jaffer on the recently released CIA memos. Jameel Jaffer, co-editor with Amrit Singh of Administration of Torture: A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond,...

April 10, 2009

"Pirates are Winning" — Martin N. Murphy

With the recent hijacking of the Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates, it is no surprise that Martin N. Murphy, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) in Washington D.C. and author of Small Boats, Weak...

April 3, 2009

Feministe Reviews Sex Trafficking

The popular Web site Feministe has just posted a review of Siddharth Kara’s Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. Here’s an excerpt from the review: “Solutions are where Kara’s analysis really shines. He offers a two pronged plan...

March 31, 2009

Peter Maguire on the Cambodian Genocide Trials

Yesterday, The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) interviewed Peter Maguire, author of Facing Death in Cambodia, about the opening of the Cambodian genocide tribunal. The long-delayed tribunal began with the testimony of the man known as Brother Duch. As Maguire states...

March 26, 2009

The Israeli Secret Services vs. Terrorism — A Post by Ami Pedahzur

In an article written for Middle East Strategy at Harvard , Ami Pedahzur argues that the resources now being spent on counterterrorism operations should be allocated to other national security needs and that it is time for Israel and other...

March 24, 2009

William Milam on the Importance of Economic Assistance for Pakistan

William Milam, former ambassador to Pakistan and author of Bangladesh and Pakistan: Flirting with Failure in South Asia, recently testified about Pakistan before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Milam was joined by Steven Coll, author of Ghost...

March 11, 2009

Robert Barnett on the 50th Anniversary of the Dalai Lama's Flight from Tibet

Yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s forced exile to India and to discuss the event, NPR interviewed Robert Barnett, director modern Tibetian studies at Columbia University and author of Lhasa: Streets with Memories. Barnett, who was in...

March 3, 2009

Why the Recent Elections Won’t Stop Terrorism in Israel

The following post is by Ami Pedahzur, author of The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism. Two months after the end of the Israeli offensive in Gaza it seems that once again the “war model” for counterterrorism has...

March 2, 2009

The Dover Ban – Why No One Gets It Right

The following is a post by Michael Sledge, author of Soldier Dead. Recently, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the ban on media presence at the return of “transfer cases” containing the remains of US service personnel who have died...

Category: Current Events