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I ~]PI~;~Le~l~ Confronting Development Assessing Mexico's Economic and Social Policy Challenges Edited by KEVIN J. MIDDLEBBOOK and EDUARDO ZEPEDA Since the 1980s, Mexico has alternately served as a model of structural economic reform and as a cautionary example of the limitations associated with market-led development. This book provides a comprehensive,inter- disciplinaryassessment of the principaleconomic and socialpolicies adopted by Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s. $27.95paper $75.00cloth ~Ot~ China's Techno-Warriors I- NntionalSecMrity and Strategic Competition ~rom the Nuclear to the Information Age EVAN A. FEIGENBAUM This book skillfully weaves together four stories: Chinese views of techno- logydudng the Communirt era;the role oi the military inChinese political andeconomic life; the evolution ofopen and flexible conceptions ofpublic managementinChina; and the technological dimensions ofthe rise of ~? a~r~-a,-· Chinesepower. $55.00 cloth i NOW IN PAPERBACK Another Such Victory President Truman and the Cold War, 1945-1953 ARNOLD A. OFFNER "Aprovocative, critical analysis of HarryS. Truman, now the most acclaimed presidentof the Cold War era. Everyonewho has read McCullough on Truman will want to read Offner and reexamine previous conclusions." --Melvyn Lefner, Universityof Virginiaand fellow,The WoodrowWilson Center "This major book is a critical revisionistportrait of Truman's personal role in shapingU.S. foreign policy toward the SovietUnion and the People'sRepublic of China." -J. Carry Clifford, Universityof Connecticut Stanford Nuclear Age Series $27.95paper $37.95cloth Asian Security Order Instrumental and Normative Features EDITED BY MUTHIAH ALAGAPPA ASIAN SECIIRI~I~Y OKDEI( "The capstone volume of a theoretically sophisticated, intellectually integrated, empirically rich, and politically sensitive set of inquiries. In the empirically informed literature on international relations, I know of no scholar writing on Asian security who comes close to matching the coherent and compelling vision of a politically relevant social science that Alagappa has succeeded in articulating. " -Peter J. I<atzenstein,Cornell University $34.95paper $85.00cloth information on othertitles ·-:~Elaga% ~wind~ ~t wors< ·bbauniversieby 800.621.2736 www, sun. org WQ WQSPRING 2003 THE WILSON QUARTERLY Published by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars www.wilsonquarterly.com 12 BODY SMARTS by Edward Tenner In the latest skirmish between humans and machines, the thumb has been ascendant, and it points toward a reassuringly human future. 16 KALININGRAD by Peter Savodnik Once a Soviet stronghold on the Baltic Sea, the Russian city of Kaliningrad is now physically cut off from its home country and not much loved by its Westernized neighbors. 23 IRAQ FROM SUMER TO SADDAM Jason Goodwin • Martin Walker • Amatzia Baram The land we now call Iraq was the cradle of human civilization and, for a time, the seat of the fabled caliphate that governed the Muslim world. It’s been ruled by the Mongols, Ottomans, and British. What can Iraq’s history tell us of its prospects for becoming a democracy and, perhaps, a source of renewal once again for the entire region? 52 WHAT’S NATURAL? by Andrew Stark Do Viagra and other new medical treatments merely restore “natural functioning,” or do they enhance it? Today’s debates among medical ethicists, insurers, and others are a preview of the fights to come over future genetic and pharmaceutical breakthroughs. 63 GLOBAL WARMING: BOTH SIDES Jack M. Hollander • V. Ramanathan and Tim P. Barnett Confused by the claims and counterclaims about global warming? Three respected scientists explore the arguments on each side of the issue. departments 2 EDITOR’S COMMENT 109 CURRENT BOOKS Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn 3 CORRESPONDENCE on parenting 9 FINDINGS Lis Harris on travel writers Death Knells Stargazing as Pathology Reviews by Wendy Kaminer, Lynne Bird Brains Lamberg, David Lindley, Carlos Lozada, Herbert S. Parmet, 85 THE PERIODICAL OBSERVER Amy E. Schwartz, and others Without Fear or Favor? Now, America the Imperial? 128 PORTRAIT: Spectacles cover: Detail from Al-Iraq (1998), by Hamid al-Attar, from the ayagallery, London. Design by David Herbick. The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. USPS 346-670 | Volume XXVII, Number 2 | Printed in the U.S.A. Editor’s Comment ou wouldn’t have known it from reading the daily press and opinion magazines this past winter, but Iraq has a history. It was Ydismaying to watch as Americans debated every nuance of the pro- and antiwar positions almost entirely without troubling to consult his- tory, except occasionally to document what all agreed were the evils of Saddam Hussein’s regime. There were passing references to Saddam’s invocation of the Mongol invader Hulagu and other figures from the distant past, but about the substance of that past and what it might mean to the Iraqi people we heard virtually nothing. What of the Baghdad caliphate that once ruled the entire Muslim world, or the long years of Ottoman domination? Even though Britain, America’s strongest ally in the drive to disarm Saddam, was essentially the creator of modern Iraq and had served as its colonial ruler after World War I, scarcely a word was said about that experience or its relevance. And what were we to make of those casual news media asides that Iraq has—or had before Saddam—the largest and most sophisticated middle class in the Arab world? How was the Iraqi middle class made? What distinguished Iraq from other Arab countries? In this issue, we venture some answers to these and other questions. As we go to press, coalition forces are approaching Baghdad. Our essays speak of Saddam’s regime in the past tense, reflecting our profound hope that events will make the words true before they appear in print. In any event, Americans will be involved in an effort to remake a post-Saddam Iraq—and perhaps the region as a whole—along more liberal, democratic lines. It’s well past time we began to understand this place whose future has become so intertwined with our own. Editor: Steven Lagerfeld The Wilson Quarterly (ISSN-0363-3276) is published in Managing Editor: James H. Carman January (Winter), April (Spring), July (Summer), and October Senior Editors: Robert K. Landers, (Autumn) by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for James M. Morris Scholars at One Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 1300 Pennsylvania Literary Editor: Stephen Bates Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004–3027. Complete Editors at Large: Ann Hulbert, Jay Tolson article index available online at www.wilsonquarterly.com. Copy Editor: Vincent Ercolano Subscriptions: one year, $24; two years, $43. Air mail outside Contributing Editors: Martha Bayles, U.S.: one year, $39; two years, $73. Single copies mailed Linda Colley, Denis Donoghue, Max Holland, upon request: $7; outside U.S. and possessions, $8; selected Stephen Miller, Jeffery Paine, Walter Reich, back issues: $7, including postage and handling; outside Alan Ryan, Edward Tenner, Charles U.S., $8. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. All unsolicited manuscripts Townshend, Alan Wolfe, Bertram Wyatt-Brown should be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped enve- Researchers: Christopher M. Byrd, lope. Members: Send changes of address and all subscrip- Christopher R. Moore tion correspondence with Wilson Quarterly mailing label to Board of Editorial Advisers: K. Anthony Subscriber Service, The Wilson Quarterly, P.O. Box 420406, Appiah, Amy Chua, Robert Darnton, Nathan Palm Coast, FL 32142–0406. (Subscriber hot line: Glazer, Harry Harding, Robert Hathaway, 1-800-829-5108.) Postmaster: Send all address changes to Elizabeth Johns, Jackson Lears, The Wilson Quarterly, P.O. Box 420406, Palm Coast, FL Seymour Martin Lipset, Robert Litwak, 2142–0406. Microfilm copies are available from Bell & Wilfred M. McClay, Richard Rorty, Howell Information and Learning, 300 North Zeeb Road, Blair Ruble, Martin Sletzinger, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. U.S. newsstand distribution by S. Frederick Starr, Philippa Strum, Ingram Periodicals, Inc. (for information, call 1-800-627- Joseph Tulchin, Martin Walker 6247, ext. 33660). Advertising: Suzanne Napper, Founding Editor: Peter Braestrup (1929–1997) Tel.: (202) 691-4021, Fax: (202) 691-4036. Publisher/Mail Business Director: Suzanne Napper Order: Kalish, Quigley & Rosen, Tel.: (212) 399-9500, Circulation: Cary Zel, ProCirc, Miami, Fla. Fax: (212) 265-0986. 2 Wilson Quarterly CorrespondenceCorrespondence Letters may be mailed to The Wilson Quarterly, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004–3027, or sent via facsimile, to (202) 691-4036, or e-mail, to [email protected]. The writer’s telephone number and postal address should be included. For reasons of space, letters are usually edited for publication. Some letters are received in response to the editors’ requests for comment. based on good, validated, and theoretically Gene Testing sound science. Rather than denying that a her- I would disagree with Carl Elliott’s impli- itable basis for race exists, or suggesting that it cation in “Adventures in the Gene Pool” cannot be measured, perhaps we should just rec- [WQ, Winter ’03] that the genetic test offered ognize, celebrate, and cherish our diversity by my company would contribute somehow to and complexity as a species. racial disharmony. After learning results from Tony Frudakis our test, many racists might need to rethink their CEO, DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. positions.