| For headline followers, the Foreign
Policy in Focus website (http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/)
provides plenty of original news and views on National Missile
Defense, the Camp David summit, and military aid to Colombia.
But for activists, academics, journalists, and concerned citizens
who want to know about current issues and events gaining little
or no coverage in the mainstream U.S. press, the IRC continues
to be an essential source for up-to-the-moment information.
For example, this month our homepage features original analysis
by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ross Gelbspan and former
ambassador to the U.S. from Guyana, Dr. Cedric Grant. Gelbspan’s
briefing paper, “The Climate Crisis and Carbon Trading,”
is being circulated by Climate Action Network in the U.S., the
Centre for Science and Environment in New Dehli, and climate
activists in Germany, Canada, and Bangladesh. Dr. Grant’s
analysis, “U.S.-Caribbean Relations,” has circulated
among foreign affairs ministers and ambassadors from Barbados,
Trinidad, and Guyana, and among export development agencies
in the United States.
Internet
Expansion & Outreach
Look for several new links on the IRC’s web pages this
fall. We’re adding a comprehensive review of the presidential
candidates’ positions on foreign policy—featuring
quotes from George W. Bush and Al Gore on the campaign trail,
original commentary from IF experts, and an exclusive interview
with Ralph Nader, coming in August. An electronic bulletin board
for information on grassroots, academic, and community forums
dealing with world affairs will be available later this summer.
If your organization or community is sponsoring an event, tell
us about it. Please contact (tim@irc-online.org)
with details.
A new research project analyzing the impact of U.S. aid and
global governance programs on developing countries will be launched
this month on our website. The program provides information
to international scholars, policymakers, and activists working
on new approaches to self-determination struggles in the developing
world.
Progressive Response, the project’s weekly ezine,
features a new “Around the World” column by Tom Barry
focusing on current international policy issues. To subscribe
directly, send a blank email message to: newusfp-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Materials continue to circulate among church, labor, and grassroots
organizations, thanks in large part to the internet. The United
Church of Christ, War Resisters League, and Business Leaders
for Sensible Priorities all utilized our briefing paper “Star
Wars Revisited” in their campaigns against wasteful defense
spending, by downloading the 4-page brief from the web. Similarly,
the International Labor Rights Fund and the Evans School of
Public Affairs (University of Washington) used policy reports
and briefing papers centered on the World Trade Organization
for outreach and coursework purposes.
All Foreign Policy In Focus materials are downloadable (free)
from our website. Get your copies today. Happy surfing!
FPIF in
China
Tom Barry traveled to China in June to participate in a forum
of twenty U.S. and Chinese scholars to discuss the “Future
of U.S.-China Relations.” Sponsored by the Nautilus Institute
in San Francisco and Fudan University in Shanghai, the group
debated the plausibility of different scenarios for U.S.-China
affairs over the next decade. After a second meeting in November
2000, the group will prepare a report to be used for education
and advocacy purposes.
|
| With just a small percentage of
the votes tallied in July 2’s elections in Mexico, President
Ernesto Zedillo of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional took
to the airwaves to tell the nation that the PRI’s 71-year
grip on power had ended. “With the results that are in, it
is now possible to tell who the next president of the republic
will be—Vicente Fox Quesada.” Flipping channels on TV,
one alternated between seas of silent, shocked faces and jubilant
plazas where crowds waved the Mexican flag or the colors of Fox’s
triumphant Partido Accion Nacional (PAN). It was an historic moment.
There is little doubt that Mexican electoral democracy came
out of the July 2 balloting a winner. But while many analysts
on both sides of the line are hailing Fox’s victory as
the triumph of democracy in Mexico, it would be more accurate
to characterize it as an important—but not conclusive—step
forward. There is a lot of hard work to be done before Mexico’s
democratic transformation is complete—not to mention a
number of pending questions regarding the way Vicente Fox’s
pro-market agenda will impact average Mexicans.
On thing is certain: Mexico’s July 2 elections have ushered
in what is likely to be the most exciting period in Mexican
politics since the revolution, and BIOS is looking forward to
providing continuing coverage of the historic changes south
of the line. Keep an eye open for the August issue of borderlines,
which is devoted entirely to analysis of the 2000 Mexican elections
and the prospects for the future.
Program
Goings On
In early June, BIOS director George Kourous attended the 7th
Regular Session of the CEC Council of Ministers in Dallas. Among
the key issues on the CEC Council agenda was a discussion of
proposed modifications to the NAFTA environmental side accord
in ways that would limit the public’s ability to draw on
the oversight mechanisms it provides. Extensive lobbying by
NGOs before and after the meeting led the three ministers to
reconsider their actions. The CEC deliberations were the subject
of a borderlines UPDATER that went out June
14.
George is also participating in the planning committee meetings
for the Third Annual Meeting on the Border Environment, scheduled
to take place in the Spring of 2001. Considered one of the most
important regional gatherings on environmental issues, the Encuentro
brings together hundreds of nongovernmental and community organizations
from both sides of the border. The IRC and BIOS are grateful
to have the chance to help pull this remarkable event together.
Talking
with the Press
The media has been turning more frequently to BIOS staff for
quotes and answers regarding border issues. In the past month,
BIOS staff have fielded calls from the Associated Press, Albuquerque
Weekly Alibi, Drug Reform Coordination Network, and San
Francisco’s KPFA public radio station on issues ranging
from immigration in Arizona to the Mexican elections to drug
control policy in Mexico. George Kourous was interviewed for
a story on maquiladoras which appeared in the latest issue of
Workforce magazine, while an UPDATER he wrote
on the Mexican elections was featured online at Policy.com.
Similarly, a recent pre-election borderlines UPDATER
on Vicente Fox’s stance on immigration inspired a story
on that issue in the June 15 Houston Chronicle, while
BIOS planning consultant Tom Barry, who codirects the IRC’s
Foreign Policy In Focus program, is a member of the board of
advisers for Homelands Productions’ new series for public
radio, Border Stories.
|
