Background on the News - 2005-02-16

The Baby Trade

February 16, 2005

Vast numbers of the children who survived last December's tsunami are now orphans who need to be placed in new families. Unfortunately, the legal standards that govern international adoption could keep them from finding loving homes abroad. In an article for Foreign Affairs in 2003, Ethan Kapstein showed how, despite the best of intentions, the main adoption treaty sometimes helps keep orphans in third-world countries away from foster parents in industrialized states. In a new postscript, he shows how, perversely, the treaty is now frustrating the international adoption of the tsunami orphans.

• Full text of original essay
• Read a postscript by the author   NEW 

Previously in Background on the News

Operation Iraqi Freedom
February 2, 2005
Iraq's elections this week were a momentous event, for Iraqis, the Middle East more generally, and American foreign policy. Still, it is unclear just what government they will bring and what their ultimate significance for the country's future will be. . . . Read more

Peace by Piece
January 19, 2005
Last week, the government in Khartoum and rebels in the south finally signed an agreement to end Sudan's decades-long civil war, paving the way for the south's eventual independence. Unfortunately, the deal addresses only half of the country's problems, as another war between Khartoum and other rebels devastates the western province of Darfur. . . . Read more

• Newsletter Archive

In the Next Issue of Foreign Affairs

On newsstands starting March 1, 2005

• Kenneth Pollack and Ray Takeyh propose a comprehensive package of threats and rewards to steer Iran off the nuclear path;
• Steven Cook explores the possibility of using financial incentives to promote political liberalization in the Middle East;
• P. W. Singer on the need for the Pentagon to rein in private military contractors;
• Stuart Brown, David Levey, and Niall Ferguson on the significance of U.S. deficits.

Plus: Challenges ahead for Yushchenko and Ukraine, a new vision for the U.S. military, defusing Taiwan-China tensions, and the need for a greater U.S. commitment to development aid.

To get your copy of the March/April 2005 issue, visit your local newsstand or the Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore nearest you beginning March 1, 2005. To receive your copy in the mail, subscribe no later than:

• U.S. Orders: March 31, 2005
• International and Canadian orders: February 28, 2005

Or use our Newsstand Finder.

In the Current Issue of Foreign Affairs

The complete text of selected essays and of all the book reviews from the January/February issue can be found on the Foreign Affairs Web site. Currently the following essays are available in their full text:

Grand Strategy in the Second Term

John Lewis Gaddis

In his first four years, George W. Bush presided over the most sweeping redesign of U.S. strategy since the days of F.D.R. Over the next four, his basic direction should remain the same: restoring security in a more dangerous world.

• What people are saying
  (via Google)

Iraq: Winning the Unwinnable War

James Dobbins

By losing the trust of the Iraqi people, the Bush administration has already lost the war in Iraq. Moderate Iraqis can still win it, but only if they wean themselves from Washington and get support from elsewhere.

• What people are saying
  (via Google)

Did North Korea Cheat?

Selig S. Harrison

Two years ago, Washington accused Pyongyang of running a secret nuclear weapons program. But how much evidence was there to back up the charge? A review of the facts shows that the Bush administration misrepresented and distorted the data — while ignoring the one real threat North Korea actually poses.

• What people are saying
  (via Google)

Outstanding New Books

Plaudits from our book review panel in the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs.

Camus and Sartre: The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel That Ended It
by Ronald Aronson
"When France was liberated, the two men became the country's leading new intellectuals and heralds of existentialism . . . , and over the next 15 years . . . they figured in a kind of three-act politico-intellectual play, which Aronson recounts with erudition, empathy, fairness, and elegance."  —Stanley Hoffmann
Read the review

The Euro and Its Central Bank: Getting United After the Union
by Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa
" . . . an authoritative, well-informed account of the problems of modern central banking . . . "  —Richard N. Cooper
Read the review

Nobility and Civility: Asian Ideals of Leadership and the Common Good
by Wm. Theodore De Bary
"De Bary, arguably the West's leading scholar of classical Asian thought, has written an elegant and thoughtful essay on the essence of true leadership and political virtue as expounded in the classics of Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Japanese thought. . . . Just to follow de Bary's journeys through Asian classical texts is an intellectually broadening experience . . . "  
—Lucian W. Pye
Read the review

Guests of God: Pilgrimage and Politics in the Islamic World
by Robert R. Bianchi
" . . . a beautifully wrought study that tells much about the hajj and more."  —L. Carl Brown
Read the review

Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle
by Stephen Biddle
" . . . Biddle has established himself as unique among students of contemporary warfare in his ability to address fundamental issues of theory and practice using sophisticated methodologies and wide-ranging sources. . . . [his] basic argument is expressed with great lucidity and precision."  —Lawrence D. Freedman
Read the review