Vol. 2 No. 1 (1989)

After a lengthy hiatus, the Fourth World Journal is back in print. We are picking up where we left off with the publication of Volume Two. Subscribers will continue to receive FWJ based on their existing orders. Our regular readers will notice that FWJ has undergone a complete facelift. The type is clearer, easier to read, and we now have the ability to include line drawings, maps, and occasionally black-and-white photography.

We have reorganized by adding Associate Editor Jenny Taylor and Assistant Editor Tina L. Benshoof—both with excellent editorial experience. Thanks to several small grants, we are now able to maintain our subscriptions on computer. As a result of improvements in our worldwide contacts, we are now better able to provide our readers with a wider selection of articles, essays, and analysis.

With these improvements and changes, we hope to provide our readers with an even better publication. We wish to express our special thanks and appreciation to subscribers for the strong support and confidence given to the Fourth World Journal. Through the changes and improvements we have made, we hope we will continue to earn that support.

In this issue, contributors take us to West Papua and the Philippines, explore the historical wrongs done to the people of Armenia, and examine a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court concerning tribal government zoning powers of the Yakima Indian Nation in the United States.

Professor David Hyndman, an experienced researcher who has spent a great deal of his professional life in Papua, has written an exposé on the treacherous impact of Indonesia's introduction of tapeworm-infested pigs on the peoples of West Papua. His intimate knowledge of the people and his examination of the implications of Indonesia's hidden policy of "Papuan de-population" is revealing and calls for global condemnation.

In a major piece written expressly for FWJ, Joseph E. Fallon, a freelance writer with extensive foreign affairs analytical experience, examines the historical circumstances surrounding the establishment of the Philippine state. He also discusses the prospects for the emergence of several Fourth World nations from the wars being waged against centralized control.

Dr. Richard Korn, a professor at John Jay College and Director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, documents the case of Turkey’s early 20th-century genocidal attack on the peoples of Armenia. In light of Armenia’s efforts to withdraw from Soviet control and reunite with Turkish Armenia, Dr. Korn’s recitation of one aspect of Armenia’s contemporary history will doubtless have broad implications for that region of the world.

Finally, I have contributed a review of a U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the right of a tribal government to zone its own lands. Despite the fact that a majority of the residents in an area of Yakima tribal territory are not members of the Indian Nation, the Yakima Nation sought to regulate how the land was used. This case is significant because of its direct implications for Indian nations in the United States, and its broad implications for other Fourth World nations globally. Many countries directly borrow from U.S. court decisions related to Fourth World nations and incorporate what they consider “favorable rules of law” into their own codes. This decision may be used to give states the "lawful authority" to annex Fourth World territories—thus insulating them from external criticism.