Two journalist reports first published in The Independent newspaper in the UK and the Philadelphia Inquirer in the US on the proliferation of mercenary forces in Iraq and elsewhere with a “licence to kill”. The Independent’s report says that the immunity enjoyed by civilian security contractors in Iraq is generating a daily series of “legal” murders of Iraqis. The Philadelphia Inquirers report argues that the increasing use of mercenary forces is on the verge of threatening US civil liberties in the name of protecting homeland security.

This paper from The Stanley Foundation argues that the challenges posed to the United States by China's rise cuts across all dimensions of power. It says that although the United states faces other major powers that are authoritarian and don’t respect human rights, what makes the rise of China so important to the United States is that China, alone among other nations, has the potential to be competitive across several dimensions of power.

Report from The Stanley Foundation that examines the interrogation, detention, and trials of detainees in the US ‘War on Terror,’ and argues that issues of detainee treatment raise profound questions of American values.