COVER: What Drives China. Guest columnist Orville Schell opens the

cover package with an essay adapted from "China: Humiliation and the

Olympics." Schell argues protests against China could be counterproductive.

"Protests would almost certainly spark the kind of nationalist and

autocratic backlash that they're meant to remedy." Schell argues that to

have an understanding of what these Games mean to the Chinese, it is

important to first understand their historical grievances. The most

critical element in the formation of China's modern identity has been the

legacy of the country's "humiliation" at the hands of foreigners. "This

inferiority complex has been institutionalized in the Chinese mind," he

writes. Over the years, China has gotten closer than ever to escaping from

this past. "Now is not the time to provoke them further and impede their

progress toward a new, more equal and self-assured sense of nationhood."



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148997



    A Viewer's Guide to Beijing. Boston Bureau Chief and National Sports

Correspondent Mark Starr provides a viewer's guide to the Beijing Olympics.

The guide includes what's behind the race for gold medals between U.S. and

China; the key athletes to watch, such as Michael Phelps and Dara Torres;

the rivalries in the gymnastics arena; and the new ways scientists are

testing athletes for performance enhancing drugs.



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148961



    Who'll Stop the Rain? Senior Editor and Science Columnist Sharon Begley

writes about China's weather modification program and its plans for keeping

the rain at bay for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Beijing

National Stadium (a.k.a. the "bird's nest"). "Too bad that no project in

the 60-year history of weather modification has managed to reliably bring

about or suppress rain on demand," Begley writes. "With an estimated 30,000

rainmakers, a $100 million budget and more hardware than it has pointed at

Taiwan, China has the largest weather-modification program in the world.

Despite China's claims that its cloud-seeding technology can make rain on

demand, though, experts are dubious."



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/149000



    The Road From Rome. Guest columnist David Maraniss writes that any

semblance of the old idea that the Olympics are kept free from

professionalism, commercialism and politics is long gone and much of that

change started in the days leading to the Rome Olympic games. In an

adaptation from his book, "Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World,"

Maraniss writes that Rome brought the first doping scandal, the first

commercially broadcast Summer Games and the first runner paid for wearing a

certain brand of shoes. It also, fittingly, brought the first round of

controversy over China.



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148999



    A $16 Billion Problem. Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff

reports on why Chevron has hired mega lobbyists to squeeze Ecuador in a

toxic dumping case. Brought by U.S. trial lawyers on behalf of thousands of

indigenous people, the suit accuses Chevron of responsibility for the

dumping of toxic oil waste into Ecuador's Amazon rainforest. Now both sides

are in an unusually high-powered battle in Washington between an army of

Chevron lobbyists and a group of savvy plaintiff lawyers, one of whom has

tapped a potent old schoolmate - Barack Obama. Chevron is pushing the Bush

administration to yank special trade preferences for Ecuador if its

government doesn't quash the case.



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/149090



    The Taliban's Baghdad Strategy. Special Correspondent Sami Yousafzai

and South Asia Bureau Chief Ron Moreau report that Afghanistan's insurgents

have a new target-Kabul, and its surrounding town and villages. Their goal

is not to overrun the capital but to terrorize its residents and drive away

investors. To some, the Afghan capital is beginning to feel like a new

Baghdad, which is exactly what the Taliban want. By focusing on Kabul, "we

can create panic and undermine the last vestiges of support for the

regime," says a senior Taliban intelligence operative in Pakistan.



    Obama's Sober Mood. In an interview, Barack Obama told Senior White

House Correspondent Richard Wolffe that his overriding mood during his

recent trip overseas has been a sober one despite the rock-star reception

he received in Europe last week. "When you look at the very difficult

problem of Iran, the very difficult problem of Afghanistan and Pakistan,

continuing difficulties in Iraq, the challenges of Middle East peace, the

next president is going to have his hands full. And that's before you start

talking about climate change, the economy, relationships with Russia, China

and North Korea," Obama says. "The point is it doesn't take much to

puncture any euphoria you may feel because of a speech you've given."



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148986



    Democracy in the Dock. Moscow Bureau Chief Owen Matthews reports on

what could happen should Turkey's Constitutional Court rule to close

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and ban 70 of its top

members and party founders. A decision to close it and ban its top members

from politics would leave the country leaderless, creating a dangerous

power vacuum in Turkish politics and could provoke outcry from the European

Union and from the United States, which counts on the AKP's support in

regional trouble spots such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria.



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148920



    Redefining the 'Axis of Evil.' Tokyo Bureau Chief Christian Caryl,

Special Correspondent B.J. Lee and Contributing Editor Stephen Glain report

on North Korea's nuclear-disarmament deal that could change life for its

people, if it lives up to all it promises. As structured so far, the deal

has dangerous ambiguities and fails to address major parts of Kim Jong Il's

weapons programs. Some critics charge that the current agreement addresses

only the North's declared plutonium program while failing to determine

action on its alleged parallel program of uranium enrichment.



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148860



    GLOBAL INVESTOR: It's All About Commodities. Ruchir Sharma, head of

emerging markets for Morgan Stanley Asset Management, writes that the only

axis around which the global economy revolves is oil. In the first half of

2008, stock markets of most oil-exporting countries soared to new highs,

while those of oil importers plunged 15 percent on average. "But oil could

sow the seeds of its own destruction. The price surge is causing a

widespread inflation problem, even in oil-exporting countries," Sharma

writes.



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148933



    WORLD VIEW: How Obama Could Tame Iran. Selig S. Harrison, director of

the Iran Program at the Center for International Policy, writes about how

Tehran would react should Barack Obama win the presidency and makes good on

his promise to negotiate with Iran without preconditions. "Recent

interviews I've held with three authoritative Iranians suggest that Tehran

will have preconditions of its own." Harrison writes. "These Iranians say,

the United States would first have to end its 'hostile policies' toward

their country. The most important step pushed by all three is one already

promised by Obama: setting a timetable for the complete withdrawal of U.S.

combat forces from Iraq."



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148932



    THE LAST WORD: Kirill Kabanov Russian Anti-Corruption Committee Czar.

Kabanov says that in order for President Dmitry Medvedev to win his war on

corruption in Russia he needs "anti-corruption legislation, independent

courts and independent police institutions to prosecute corrupt bureaucrats

on all levels, beginning from the Kremlin," he says. "Unfortunately, he

doesn't have any of these."



    http://www.newsweek.com/id/148930