Category Articles

In category Articles on  July 11, 2013 

By Mehri Madarshahi and Anoush d’Orville

For the first time since World War II, the world turned its back on the process of liberalization; the engine of a huge increase in trade of goods and services during the years of globalization.

All eyes were on Geneva.  Almost seven years after its launch in Doha, Qatar, and many other false starts and dashed hopes, the final week of negotiations was ushered in on 21 July 2008 at the headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. Over 100 ministers were in attendance intent on striking a deal and thus concluding the Doha Round, They promised to strive towards bridging their differences on blueprint agreements in agriculture and industrial products and provide for balanced “modalities”...

In category Articles on  October 27, 2009 

BY MEHRI MADARSHAHI D’ORVILLE

PART I

The eyes of the entire world are again on Iran and its relationship with the West and in particular the United States. Are we on the verge of a genuine breakthrough and sea change in policies and strategies, or are we witnessing nothing but an elaborate game of smoke and mirrors?

A flashback: on 29 January 2002, in his State of the Union address, President Bush declared his war on terror and identified States like Iran, Iraq and North Korea, as well as ط²their terrorist allies namely Syria and Libyaط³, as the ط²axis of evilط³. They were suspected of seeking weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and as such posing a grave and growing danger to the world peace...

In category Articles on  April 13, 2009 

Huffington Post
By Trita Parsi

Israel does not have the military capability to successfully eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. But its threats are strangling diplomatic alternatives.

In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have told President Barack Obama that either America stops Iran or Israel will. Not surprisingly, the interview sparked quite a controversy and only a day later, General David Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “the Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it.”

So once again, in spite of President Obama’s best efforts, the military option was put back...

In category Articles on  November 5, 2008 

MaximsNews Network
By Mehri Madarshahi

This is historic and unprecedented enthusiasm from ordinary people throughout the world: Asia is claiming him for his Indonesian childhood, Africa is owning him for his Kenyan father and his ancestral background, the Middle East is vying for him for his middle name – and his mother has been a white American woman from the state of Kansas.

Europe is thrilled by the ...

In category Articles on  October 10, 2008 

MaximsNews Network
By Mehri Madarshahi

Fully prepared to hosting the highly anticipated Olympic Games on 8 August 2008, the Chinese – miscalculating their universal popularity contest – are caught unprepared in an unprecedented storm of unwelcome scrutiny on issues which hitherto were considered a matter of their internal sovereignty. 

The problems started when the earlier promise of “green” games was unlikely to materialize. The international outcry, on environmental problems, intensified when some participating countries expressed uneasiness with the city’s poor air quality and the Ethiopian top runner Haile Gebreselassie decided to skip the Olympic marathon out of concern for his health. 

In the process, the International Olympic Committee cautioned that some endurance Olympic e...

In category Articles on  July 3, 2008 

MaximsNews Network
By Mehri Madarshahi

This year some 120 for...

In category Articles, Publications on  June 10, 2008 

INTERNATIONAL FORUM
Women’s Role In Cross-Culture Dialogue
June 10, 2008 – Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan
By Mehri Madarshahi
DOWNLOAD PDF

Expanding the Role and Empowerment of Women

Let me begin by thanking the Heydar Aliyev Foundation for organizing this important Forum dealing with the “Role of Women in Cross Cultural Dialogue”. Being present at this important gathering gives me the pleasure of working together with such a prominent group of participants to exchange knowledge and views and to establish valuable contacts for achieving enhanced international understanding of how women’s voice can be heard more effectively in the context of cross-cultural dialogues. Indeed, women’s voice is and must be an essential element of every peace process and effort aimed at conflict resolution...

In category Articles on  April 10, 2008 

MaximsNews Network
By Mehri Madarshahi

In category Articles on  October 24, 2007 

MaximsNews Network
By Mehri Madarshahi

Lincoln Center/Avery Fischer Hall: Orchestra of St Luke’s for the first time in its history will play with 25 renowned musicians from every continent in a premiere produced by Mehri Madarshahi and her Association “Melody for Dialogue among Civilizations” (www.melodydialogue.org), to be held on 03 December 2007 at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City, save this Date: Reserve your ticket at Avery Fisher Hall Box Office or, visit:http://www.lincolncenter.org/show_events_list.asp?eventcode=16432

This multi-cultural concert will feature some 25 renowned traditional musicians from 21 countries (India, China, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korea, Japan, Mali, Guinea, Lithuania, Germany, Turkey, France, Croatia, Serbia and others)...

In category Articles on  April 24, 2007 

MaximsNews Network
By Mehri Madarshahi

France will be going through a second round of voting to determine who will be the future President of the country replacing Jacques Chirac after two terms and 12 years in office.

The first round of election eliminated 10 out of 12 candidates who represented all walks of life – and delivered a show down between Nicolas Sarkozy, of the ultra right Union for a Popular Movement Union (UMP), and Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party.

The most notable, if not notorious among those eliminated was Jean-Marie Le Pen, the candidate of National Front, who in the last election had defeated the then Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, the Socialist Party candidate.

But interest had equally focused on Francois Bayrou, the leader of the centrist, the Union for French D...