November 21, 2000

EU's First Step to Military Independence
Time Warner Aids Competitor To Get Merger Blessing
Clinton Asked To Declare Moratorium on Death Penalty

EU's First Step to Military Independence

European Union defense ministers today pledged troops and materiel for a 60,000-strong Rapid Reaction Force that could act in crises on the continent when NATO, and in particular the United States, chooses not to engage, according to The Washington Post.

Under the plan, the force would be able to deploy to hot spots within 60 days and sustain itself in a humanitarian, peacekeeping or conflict operation for up to two years.

The new force and the nature of its relationship with NATO have been the subject of an intense transatlantic debate since the idea was first raised at an EU meeting in Helsinki a year ago, but EU and NATO officials again stressed today that the relationship will be complementary.

The Cato Institute hosted the policy forum "Creating a European Security and Defense Identity: Fact or Fantasy?" featuring where defense scholars questioned whether the creation of an independent European security and defense identity (EDSI) is a good idea from the standpoint of American security interests. Video of the forum as well as a transcript is available on the Cato Web site.

In "The Eurocorps: A Fresh Start In Europe," Jonathan G. Clarke endorses a non-interventionist role for NATO in the post-Cold War world. He writes that the "French and German ideas for a 'Eurocorps,' a fledgling European force that, when fully developed, would allow the Europeans to assume responsibility for their own defense."

Time Warner Aids Competitor To Get Merger Blessing

Time Warner has agreed to offer EarthLink Network Inc. high-speed Web services on its cable system in a move that could pave the way for Time Warner to complete its merger with America Online Inc., according to Reuters.

As a condition for approving the $112 billion merger of Time Warner and No. 1 Internet service provider America Online, federal regulators have insisted that they open high-speed cable lines to one or more Internet rivals such as EarthLink.

EarthLink, the No. 2 U.S. Internet service provider, said in a statement that it expects to start providing its high-speed, or broadband, services over Time Warner Cable systems in the second half of 2001.

In "Open Access, Private Interests, and the Emerging Broadband Market," William E. Lee argues that forcing cable owners to share their Internet pipeline is unjustified because cable already faces competition from DSL and wireless broadband services. Open-access rules also violate the First Amendment, Lee says. Since bandwidth is finite, piggybacking Internet Service Providers take up space that could otherwise be used by cable owners to disseminate content of their own choosing.

In "Will the Real Giant Please Stand Up?" Solveig Singleton comments that the government has overreacted to the proposed AOL-Time Warner merger. The real monopolists, she argues, are the agencies that investigate antitrust allegations. "They're slow, over-confident, and the only change seems to be that they get bigger every year. If you want to avoid dealing with them, you have to emigrate to outer space--you don't just turn off the TV," she writes. "If you need an ominous looming giant to worry about, how about the federal government?"

Clinton Asked To Declare Moratorium on Death Penalty

An array of religious, civil rights and political leaders are appealing to President Clinton to declare a moratorium on federal executions in the closing days of his presidency, according to The New York Times.

A letter delivered to the White House today and signed by 40 people, including the former White House counsel Lloyd N. Cutler and several other onetime members of the Clinton administration, urged the president to "prevent an unconscionable act -- executing individuals while the government is still determining whether gross unfairness has led to their death sentences."

Asked about the initiative, White House officials said Mr. Clinton had indicated no inclination to declare a moratorium.

The Cato Institute recently hosted the forum "Should the Death Penalty be Abolished?" featuring Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Cato Adjunct Scholar Jarett Decker and others.

In "Are You Death Qualified?" Clay S. Conrad writes about the unique jury selection procedure for capital cases known as "death qualification," in which any citizen with qualms about inflicting death can be disqualified from jury duty. As a result, Conrad writes that "of the over three thousand people on death row in America (the overwhelming majority of whom are guilty), not a single one has received a trial before a jury representative of the community in which they were tried. In each and every case, the juries who tried these prisoners were biased against them." Women and minorities are removed from the panels at a much higher rate than are white males.

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