Offers excerpts from three articles from the Summer 1993 issue of 'Foreign Policy.' Topics including the protection of Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, financial commitment of Americans to a United States foreign policy that promotes democracy worldwide, and British entry into the European Union; Title of articles which are written by Morton I. Abramowitz, Jagdish Bhagwati, and Morton H. Halperin

Abramowitz, Morton I.

Bhagwati, Jagdish N.

Halperin, Morton H.

Columbia University Academic Commons

18 Foreign  PolicyINBOXtem—in Afghanistan. Fast trackedthrough the research and develop-ment (r&d) phase, this systemcombines two existing methods (themetal detector and ground-pene-trating radar) and may achievemuch better results. But the randreport argues for a “next-genera-tion multisensor system” that inte-grates mature technologies withnewer ones. Estimated costs are upto $135 million; r&d could take upto 19 years.The U.S. government—not asignatory of the Ottawa land minetreaty, but the biggest spender ondemining efforts—plunks downapproximately $100 million peryear on humanitarian demining. In2002, only $2.7 million of that sumwas invested in r&d. “Right now,” says John Wilkin-son of ronco Consulting, a pri-vate firm with a five-year contractwith the U.S. Department of Statefor humanitarian land mine clear-ance, “there’s nothing better thanmine-detecting dogs.”May | June  2003 19Land mines are perhaps the mostpernicious obstacles confrontingpoor countries trying to put theirconflict-ridden past behind them. InAfghanistan, for example, an esti-mated 5 million to 7 million still lit-ter the landscape, maiming children,killing livestock, and rendering vaststretches of territory unfit for habi-tation or development. To find andremove these flowers of death,today’s deminers still use metal detec-tors and prodding devices. But metaldetectors also pick up any scrap ofmetal, producing time-consumingfalse alarms. In some cases, deminersmay also have mine-detection dogs.Unfortunately, these dogs are asexpensive as they are trusty—breed-ing and training costs between$13,000 and $25,000 per animal.And as Jackie MacDonald, one of therand report’s authors, explains,“People still have to follow up witha metal detector after dogs go in.”New approaches such as train-ing bees to detect mines or usingsystems that reflect sound or seismicwaves off mines are in the works.But none of these, argue theauthors, can alone effectively reducefalse alarms in the various condi-tions and terrain of the roughly 90mine-infested countries. At the cur-rent rate, ridding the world of allmines would take 450 to 500years—and that’s only if no newmines are laid.The U.S. Army is currently test-ing a new technology—the Hand-held Standoff Mine Detection Sys-Would JesusJoin the EU?On June 8, 2003, Poles willface one of their most impor-tant national decisions since the fallof communism: whether to join theEuropean Union (eu). And in itscrusade to win entry, the Polish gov-ernment of ex-Communist PrimeMinister Leszek Miller has found anunlikely ally: the Vatican. The pro- and anti-eu camps arefighting fiercely for each vote. Threequarters of the voting populationare expected to turn out in the ref-erendum, whose outcome is uncer-tain. In March 2003, only 58 per-cent of Poles had declared theirsupport for eu accession. Enter the Roman CatholicChurch. In a society that is 95 percentCatholic, a thumping 43 percent ofthose surveyed about the eu refer-endum said they would follow thechurch’s lead. Problem is, the churchis divided on the issue. The Vaticanhas supported Poland’s entry, seeingit as an opportunity to extend thechurch’s influence on social affairs inEurope. When Pope John Paul II trav-eled to Poland at the government’sinvitation last summer, he expressedhis hope that his native land would“find its place in the structures of theEuropean Union, and will not lose itsidentity but enrich the continent.”At the parochial level, however, localpriests often deliver anti-Europeansermons blaming the West and theInternet for the secularization of Pol-ish youth. “Globalization is the com-munism of the 21st century,” saidright-wing commentator AndrzejLeszek Szczesniak, arguing againsteu integration on Radio Maryja, anextreme-right Catholic station thatreaches nearly 3 million Poles. Andunfortunately for the government,the audience for such views is exact-ly the one that it most wants to winover for the referendum—rural vot-ers who tend to be the most isolatedand least educated. Prime Minister Miller and Pol-ish primate Jozef Glemp haveworked hand in hand on the Euro-pean question, following theendorsement in March 2002 by thePolish episcopate of plans for euintegration. But the political price ofthis partnership may be higher thananticipated. In December 2002, thegovernment postponed its campaignpromise to change Poland’s restric-tive antiabortion law. And in Janu-ary 2003, it approached the eu forpermission to preserve the laws onthe “protection of human life” inthe accession treaty. Still, no matterhow the referendum goes, it has suc-ceeded in yoking together a remark-ably odd set of bedfellows: Ex-Com-munists working with Catholics tojoin what may be the ultimate sec-ular democratic institution. Mine WeedersThe innovative use of e-mail andthe Internet to win a treatybanning antipersonnel land mineshas made the International Cam-paign to Ban Landmines one of themost hackneyed examples of high-tech in action. But deminers them-selves are still stuck with World WarII technology to do their jobs,according to a February 2003 randreport, “Alternatives for LandmineDetection.” REUTERS NEWMEDIA INC./CORBISTen Years Ago in FPOne day the United States may have todecide how committed it is to the seeming-ly contradictory goals of protecting theKurds and preserving Iraq s territorialintegrity. . . . Many believe the Western-defended Kurdish autonomous zoneendangers the allegiance of Turkey s ownKurds. . . . Turkish leaders are not likely toprevent the West from maintaining its pro-tection; nor will they initiate what could bea break with the United States and othersover Hussein.Morton I. AbramowitzDateline Ankara: Turkey After Ozal  Atlanticists in Britain and the United Statespreferred to see Britain link its destiny withthe United States rather than with the[European Community (EC)]. . . . De Gaulle sopposition to British entry [to the EC] was,of course, driven wholly by the fear thatBritain would act as the Americans  Trojanhorse within the EC, bringing in the interestsand influence of the United States andundermining the French policy of independ-ence from U.S. hegemony.Jagdish BhagwatiBeyond NAFTA: Clinton s Trading ChoicesAmericans prefer to see other countriesenjoy the same liberties they do. Thatdesire is especially strong when other peo-ples show that they too want to decidetheir fate by democratic means . . . .Further, if Americans saw that U.S. policy-makers were promoting democracy aroundthe globe, they would be more likely tosupport American policy with financialcommitments and military action whennecessary to accomplish those foreign pol-icy objectives.Mor ton  H. HalperinGuaranteeing DemocracyDownload the full text of these articles inPDF format from FOREIGN POLICY sSummer 1993 issue and more from thearchives at www.foreignpolicy.com.AFGHANISTAN For every soldier in the new Afghan National Army, atleast 100 militia members still operate in various corners ofAfghanistan, thanks to funding from neighbors like Iran andUzbekistan. So writes Mark Sedra in Afghanistan: Between War andReconstruction  (Foreign Policy in Focus, March 2003). InAfghanistan: Women and Reconstruction  (March 2003), theInternational Crisis Group notes that although the Taliban s defeatpromised an end to the systematic oppression of Afghan women, mostaid is being channelled to projects likely to prove at most symbolic.BOSNIA Although 907,000 refugees have returned to their homes since1995, about 500,000 Bosnians remain displaced, reports the InternationalCrisis Group in The Continuing Challenge of Refugee Return in Bosnia &Herzegovina  (December 2002). A weak economy, discrimination againstrefugees, and the threat of violence deter many from returning. InFostering Regional Cooperation and Reconciliation in Serbia andSoutheastern Europe  (October 2002), the Stanley Foundation argues thatthe single biggest dilemma facing the region is whether it will be a uni-fied market of 55 million people or several smaller markets.EAST TIMOR The growth of militia groups and an upsurge in vio-lence, including a deadly riot last December in the capital Dili, couldundermine progress in East Timor, according to the Special Reportof the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission of Support inEast Timor  (March 2003). The United Nations has recommendeddelaying its current timeline for a gradual exit of the roughly 4,000U.N. peacekeepers.  KOSOVO Kosovo s final status is the subject of the U.S. Institute ofPeace s Kosovo Decision Time  (February 2003). The Report of theSecretary-General on the United Nations Interim AdministrationMission in Kosovo  (January 2003) highlights the difficulty of buildingeffective, representative, transparent, and accountable  civic institu-tions with a divided populace. From running power plants to introduc-ing the euro, the assistance efforts of the European Union are detailedin its periodic newsletter, Commitment to Kosovo. The challenge of forging a peaceful, democratic post-Saddam Iraq has sharpeneddebate about the ways and means of nation building. Recent reports on Afghanistan,Bosnia, East Timor, and Kosovo offer a smorgasbord of relevant case studies, lessons, and horror stories: Some Assembly RequiredSemper Fido: Will dogs always have to dothe dirty work?

Ten Years Ago in FP

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Ten Years Ago in FP

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