June

The era of American overseas expansion and imperialism commenced in 1898 when the United States acquired the territories of Hawai`i, Guam, and the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean and Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean. That same year, Cuba, also in the Atlantic, became a U.S. protectorate until 1902, whereupon the United States maintained complete jurisdiction over Guantanamo Bay. In 1899, the United States also acquired American Samoa as another Pacific territory.

The stuff of nightmares became reality for Falun Gong practitioners in China. A spiritual movement in its infancy,1 Falun Gong became the focus of the Chinese government’s ire. There is no adequate explanation for why the government determined that Falun Gong was such a threat.

The era of American overseas expansion and imperialism commenced in 1898 when the United States acquired the territories of Hawai`i, Guam, and the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean and Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean. That same year, Cuba, also in the Atlantic, became a U.S. protectorate until 1902, whereupon the United States maintained complete jurisdiction over Guantanamo Bay. In 1899, the United States also acquired American Samoa as another Pacific territory.

Growing out of my experiences with the Democracy Development Initiative (DDI) of the Federal Bar Association, I served abroad supporting democratization and the rule of law in some dozen countries over a 20-plus-year period between 1992 and 2013. This is a reminiscence—both professional and personal—of the most salient aspects of those experiences.

Bill Neukom is the founder and chief executive officer of the World Justice Project, an organization devoted to advancing the rule of law throughout the world. He is a retired partner and former chairman of Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates) and is a lecturer at Stanford Law School, where he teaches a seminar on the rule of law. Neukom was the lead lawyer for Microsoft Corp. for nearly 25 years, managing its legal, government affairs, and philanthropic activities.

Although modern agriculture presents profound problems that are potentially fatal to the human species, a dramatically different natural-systems agriculture is possible and now under development.