Recent YaleGlobal Articles

Irresponsible Superpowers Must Cooperate

Amitav Acharya
 May 5, 2020
Governments that endured the SARS pandemic in 2003 were generally more prepared for Covid-19. Such pandemics emerge with little warning, challenging a global multilateral system largely structured around collective security and trade. Both diseases – linked with globalization, a complex phenomenon...

When Globalization Really Began

Valerie Hansen
April 30, 2020
Explorers slowly extended regional trade routes throughout ancient history, and the year 1000 marked the first time that an object could circle the world. Thus, globalization began, argues Valerie Hansen, the Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University. This essay is based on her book...

Traditional Medicine and Quest for Covid-19 Cure

Dang Nguyen
 April 28, 2020
Societies are desperate to discover a cure for deadly Covid-19. In Southeast Asia, governments scramble to contain the health and economic fallout, trying a range of top-down biomedical measures, including testing and physical distancing. Some leaders and citizens also endorse unproven and non-...

Energy Transition: Coal as the Canary

Joshua Busby, Morgan D. Bazilian and Dustin Mulvaney
April 23, 2020
New challenges and innovations put economies in constant transition, but Covid-19 has applied an abrupt halt to economic activity for most of the world. Huge shifts were already underway in global energy markets with the rise of shale gas and renewables before the pandemic. Societies must prepare...

COVID-19: Turning Point for Globalization?

Hans Yue Zhu
April 21, 2020
Protectionists assign blame for the COVID-19 pandemic on the trade, travel and migration associated with globalization. This overlooks how globalization has delivered prosperity and benefits. Still, an interconnected world cannot avoid shared risks, and even the most protectionist nations struggle...

Oil Crisis Tests Putin’s Skill to Project Strength

Thomas Graham
 April 16, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed global economic activity and oil demand. In early March, the Saudis tried to convince other oil producers to cut production, OPEC members and non-members alike. After Russia refused to go along, Saudi Arabia opened production, pressuring producers worldwide. The US...

WHO Criteria for Lifting COVID-19 Restrictions

April 15, 2020
Nations that act swiftly to contain COVID-19 can expect to lift economic restrictions more quickly. “This principle will save lives and mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic,” explains the director-general of the World Health Organization. A pandemic by its very definition requires a whole-...

Savings and Credit for Haiti

Kate Schecter
 April 14, 2020
A magnitude 7 earthquake devastated Haiti a decade ago – and NGOs launched many programs including a network of small credit and savings groups. The community-run programs set their own low interest rates and terms with the emphasis on long-term savings rather than aid or loans. Individuals “pool...

Open Borders: Scapegoat in COVID-19 Response

Samah Rafiq
 April 9, 2020
As COVID-19 spread around the world, more than a hundred countries responded by tightening border controls. Open borders provide numerous beneficial exchanges including research, trade, talent, labor and more, and Samah Rafiq, Fox Fellow at Yale University, argues against closed borders as a norm...

A Call for Intellect and Courage

Louis René Beres
 April 7, 2020
The world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, with so many economic and security ramifications, and there is longing for leaders who display courage, the quality that guarantees all others, as suggested by Winston Churchill in 1931. “Today's Trump supporters think of themselves as the ones with...

Global Currency Accord Is Necessary, But Unlikely

Will Hickey
 April 2, 2020
Global efforts are required to slow the spread of COVID-19’s economic fallout, and this is especially true for currency stabilization, argues author Will Hickey. He urges major powers to convene on slowing the US dollar’s rapid rise and curtailing protectionist urges. “Nothing would assuage world...

Global Population: Too Few Versus Too Many

Joseph Chamie
 March 31, 2020
When fertility rates drift from an average of about two births per woman, societies must manage population bulges of very young or old. Nigeria has a fertility rate of 5.5 children per woman, with a median age of 18. The median age for Italy, with a rate of 1.3 children per woman, is 45. Such...

Economic Impacts of COVID-19

David Dapice
 March 26, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic delivers a powerful shock to economies and exposes uncertainty. Waiting for vaccines and treatments, governments put the brakes on activities, imposing lockdowns to “flatten the curve” of infections and prevent a crush on hospitals. Governments and business try a range of...

Two Impossible Global Challenges

Bernard Gilland
 March 24, 2020
The world is in a vicious cycle with increasing reliance on fossil fuels and related technological advances, in turn driving food production, population growth and climate change. New cereal varieties, combined with fertilizer processes requiring energy, tripled annual crop yields since 1950 to 4...

Do Saudi Arabia, Russia Target US Shale Industry?

Dilip Hiro
March 19, 2020
COVID-19’s wave of infections has numbed the global economy, stopping transport and face-to-face trade in Asia, Europe and the Americas. This pandemic, combined with OPEC and non-OPEC nations failing to reach agreement on oil-production limits, has created a massive oil glut. OPEC and a group of...

Brexit and Animal Welfare in a Globalized World

Steven McCulloch
 March 17, 2020
The United Kingdom has long been a leader for animal welfare and rights, passing the world’s first major animal protection law in 1822. “The UK played a leading role in development of EU laws protecting animals on the farm, at transport and slaughter,” explains Steven McCulloch, a veterinary...

China Plays NIMBY With the Taliban

Austin Bodetti
 March 12, 2020
China’s leaders have detained a million Uyghurs for reeducation, claiming the goal is preventing extremism. But little concern is displayed about the Taliban who increasingly gain control in Afghanistan. China shares a 76-kilometer border with Afghanistan and holds regular discussions with the...

US Tightens Scrutiny on Foreign Investment

Xiaoli Jin
 March 10, 2020
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reviews US foreign investments in the United States and allows the president to suspend or block transactions if other laws do not apply even as “credible evidence” suggests a national security risk. The group of nine cabinet members and...

Outbreak in Hong Kong: Democracy and COVID-19

Mike Chinoy
March 5, 2020
COVID-19 may have temporarily subdued protests in Hong Kong, but a hardline approach from authorities combined with bungling on the management and communications on the outbreak could fuel more discontent. Even as Hong Kong contends with more than 100 COVID-19 cases and economic disruptions,...

COVID-19: Quality Shock to Globalization

Stephen Roach
 March 3, 2020
The new coronavirus strikes as the pace of growth for some large economies around the world has slowed or even contracted. That constrains governments’ ability to respond. “This is a supply shock – not a demand shock that can be rectified with monetary stimulus,” explains Stephen Roach, author,...
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