THE NEW REPUBLIC | Columnists | Joshua Kurlantzick

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Mendacious, Duplicitous, Gross, and Comically Refutable
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SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Joshua Kurlantzick

Joshua Kurlantzick's Recent Articles

Special Correspondent Joshua Kurlantzick joined The New Republic as foreign editor in October 2002. He is also a visiting scholar in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's China Program, where he focuses on China and Asia, and a contributing writer for Mother Jones. Additionally, Kurlantzick is currently a fellow at the USC School of Public Diplomacy and the Pacific Council on International Policy. Kurlantzick's articles also have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Foreign Affairs, Harper's, and The Atlantic Monthly, among others.

Sanction Smarter
Post date 10 21, 07
<P class=MsoNormal><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">KUALA LUMPUR</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">MALAYSIA</st1:country-region></st1:place> <?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p> <P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p>As the Burmese junta’s brutal crackdown on opposition activists continues, with police still rounding up and defrocking monks and hunting down leaders of the protests, the outside world scrambles to have any impact on the ruling generals. Despite <st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region>’s reluctance to impose overly tough measures on the generals, the United Nations agreed to a consensus statement condemning the crackdown, and U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari plans to return to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Burma</st1:country-region></st1:place> in November. Last week, President Bush announced new sanctions on the junta, which adds to two previous rounds of American sanctions.

The St. Paul warlord.; Hmong Friends
Post date 02 05, 07
Most nights, the streets of Maplewood, a Twin Cities suburb,resemble a tableau from "A Prairie Home Companion." Kids tossfootballs in front of red and white ranch-style houses on quietstreets lined with evergreens and tiny flower gardens full oforange blossoms. Policemen in thick parkas roll down their carwindows to chat with people power-walking in the Minnesota cold.

Rangoon Squad
Post date 10 22, 07
Having traveled through countries suffering under harsh authoritarian regimes, I wasn't surprised by much on my first trip to Burma, roughly ten years ago. There were the requisite thuggish military men in reflective shades patrolling the airports, the giant signs warning people to crush all internal and external destructive elements. But the booksellers of Rangoon took me aback. The main roads of Burma's largest city are lined with bookstalls hawking tattered versions of British novels, ancient copies of National Geographic, and dog-eared reprints of political philosophy texts. Over many subsequent visits to Burma, I began to see the booksellers as emblematic of a deep-seated national hunger for education and dialogue, for contact with the outside world, and for a voice in the debate about the country's future.