In this isse . . .

Guest Editorials:
The threat of bipolarity; China and the WTO; beware the Albanian mafia
Features:
Money laundering, the future of democratic Indonesia, and Europe after Kosovo
Human Rights, Ethnicity and National Identify:
Reflections on the meaning and implication of identity at the turn of the millennium
Elections Outlook:
India, South Africa, Turkey, Israel, Argentina, and Chile
Charles Cook on Washington:
The highly charged polls in the 2000 races

And the Winner is . . . the Albanain Mafia

Excerpt:

With the signing of peace treaties and the deployment of NATO peacekeeping forces in Kosovo, the time has come to crown a victor. While NATO may have achieved its objectives in the "war" -- forcing Serbia to agree to remove its troops, allowing the Kosovars back into their homes, and establishing a peacekeeping force -- the real winner is the Albanian Mafia

It cost NATO about $5 billion to prosecute its air campaign, with the United States shouldering most of the burden. Peacekeeping efforts will cost at least an additional $3 billion a year, and in the days and years to come the victors will dole out about $50 billion for reconstruction. Not everyone, however, spent money. Scavenging amid the rubble of ethnic conflict, Albanian criminal clans known as fares, profited from the war and grew in breadth, depth, size, and influence. They extended their reach, entrenched themselves in government, and essentially usurped government authority. As a result of the fares' success, Albania is left teetering on the edge of lawlessness and ungovernability.

Smuggling is the Albanian mafia's core competency, and over the past decade the Albanians have steadily come to dominate smuggling to and within Europe, even overshadowing their erstwhile mentors, the Italian Mafia . . .

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