Legal Rights and Moral Rights: Old Questions and New Problems*

Abstract. The author examines the discipline of moral rights and in particular the need to embed them in a consequential system. He argues that the widely held opinion that independence from consequential evaluation is the right way of guaranteeing individual freedom is based on an inadequate appraisal of the role of moral rights in the social context. In this perspective he examines two specific cases: (1) elementary political and civil rights, and (2) the reproductive rights of women in the context of poor countries with the problem of fast population growth. He argues that a coherent goal-rights system which accommodates rights among others goals, can overcome the non-consequential arguments and justify the force of moral rights fully within a consequentiality perspective.     

Turkey: Not About Islamic vs. Western Values

In this age of confrontation, the secular Turkish model has been seen as a bridge between Islam and the West as well as the link between Europe and Asia. Now that model faces the most severe test in its history. How the current crisis is settled will frame future relations between Islam and the West no less than the events of 9/11.     

The Evolution of Russia's Pakistan Policy

Moscow's preoccupation in Eastern Europe in the late 1940's, the distorted image it had of Pakistan and its belief that the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek would be followed by the spread of revolution through the Indian sub-continent tended to discourage the Kremlin from establishing cordial relations with Pakistan.     

Measuring Financial Condition: A Study of U.S. States

This study tests a measure of financial condition using government‐wide information as required under the new financial reporting model set forth in GASB Statement No. 34. The measure consists of four financial condition dimensions in cash, budget, long‐run and service‐level solvencies, and 11 financial condition indicators. Results show that the measure is relatively reliable and valid and that government‐wide information reported under the requirements of GASB Statement No. 34 provides a useful reporting framework to evaluate financial condition of a government. Additionally, financial condition among states varies greatly and there is much room for improvement.     

We Still Stand a Chance

The path to a nuclear weapons free world is strewn with rocks but the issues can be resolved During the past year, Korean and Iranian nuclear     

The Nightmare of Proliferation

The Iranian nuclear issue takes an ominous turn with Tehran’s recent declaration of its ability to enrich uranium to a higher grade     

Can India Learn from China?

Going through a protracted period of transition since the end of the Cold War, the world order in the making is neither what was nor what it is yet to become. It is in “the middle of the future.” To get our bearings in this uncertain transition, we explore the two grand post‐Cold War narratives—“The End of History” as posited by Francis Fukuyama and “The Clash of Civilizations” posited by the late Samuel Huntington. Mikhail Gorbachev looks back at his policies that brought the old order to collapse. The British philosopher John Gray critiques the supposed “universality” of liberalism and, with Homi Bhabha, sees a world of hybrid identities and localized cultures. The Singaporean theorist Kishore Mahbubani peels away the “veneer” of Western dominance. Amartya Sen, the economist and Nobel laureate, assesses whether democratic India or autocratic China is better at building “human capacity” in their societies.