Recent YaleGlobal Articles

Human Smuggling: Ruthless Crime or Invaluable Service?

Joseph Chamie
 December 22, 2016
Human smuggling is not new or easy to stop. Governments consider the activity a crime, yet migrants fleeing war, poverty, persecution or disasters seek out the services of experienced smugglers. The most desperate stories draw global sympathy. “For many unauthorized migrants, smugglers are freedom...

Russia Pivots to Asia

Taehwa Hong
 December 20, 2016
US President Barack Obama has emphasized that Russia is a weaker country than the United States. US military spending is 12 times more than Russia’s, and the Russian economy, under sanction for interventions in Ukraine, has been crowded out of the top 10 economies in recent years. Still, Russia...

Taiwan: More Than a Trump Card for US Dealing With Beijing

Wenran Jiang
 December 15, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump is poised to disrupt longstanding US policy towards China, and the policy approach seems deliberate, argues Wenran Jiang, political science professor at the University of Alberta and global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. Jiang points to...

Fall of Eastern Aleppo Marks Turning Point for Syrian Civil War

Dilip Hiro
 December 13, 2016
Defeat is imminent for the Syrian rebels in eastern Aleppo as government forces, supported by Russian airstrikes and Iranian militias, take control. The UN Security Council had been advised by a UN envoy that the city, once Syria’s largest, was at risk of becoming a “giant graveyard.” Rebels and...

OPEC Cobbles a Deal, But Cannot Hide Decline of Saudi Power

Chris Miller
 December 8, 2016
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was created by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela in 1960. OPEC now has 13 members. During the 1970s, oil prices quadrupled, but OPEC's ability to set strict production limits and influence prices has slipped away in recent years....

Taiwan, Thorn in China’s Side, Gets New Attention

Mark Harrison
 December 6, 2016
Disagreements set aside for too long can calcify, and Taiwan is such an example. The fact that a phone call between US President-elect Donald Trump and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen kicked up a storm highlights how frozen the differences have become. Mark Harrison, who lectures in Chinese...

Seizing Opportunity in a Post-TPP World

Stephen S. Roach
 December 1, 2016
Trade is the glue for globalization and without it other connections can subside. But US voters rejected a US leadership role in global trade deals and elected billionaire Donald Trump who has already signaled intent to have the United States to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 11...

Wanted: Equal Opportunity Globalization

Branko Milanovic
 November 29, 2016
Populist stances are resonating with dissatisfied voters in the wealthiest places including Europe and the United States. The West has posted low growth rates for its middle class over the past 25 years while the average income growth of a median household in Asia during the same period was about...

Russia Wants to Remake Globalization in Its Own Image

Richard Weitz
 November 24, 2016
Globalization and global institutions are in crisis, confronting varying levels of mistrust around the world. The Valdai Discussion Club, a group of Russian and foreign international affairs experts, assessed the global order. “Russians described Western-led neoliberal globalization as universally...

US Walks Away From TPP, Leaving China Free to Dominate Asia

Anthony Rowley
 November 22, 2016
The Obama administration has suspended efforts to win approval from the US Congress for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, reports suggest, and it’s up to the Trump administration to kill or shape the 12-nation deal. With TPP on life support, China promotes two other trade agreements for the region,...

China and the US Undercut International Law

Humphrey Hawksley
 November 17, 2016
Major powers tend to reject international law when rulings run counter to their interests insisting that the distant courts carry no jurisdiction. China rejected a Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling in July and clings to expansive claims in the South China Sea, including Scarborough Shoal near...

China and the US: Two Visions, One Collaboration?

Marc Grossman
 November 15, 2016
Donald Trump promised during the US presidential campaign to be tough on trade with China, suggesting he would label the country a currency manipulator and impose tariffs unless trade agreements were renegotiated. Trade is likewise threatened with China’s expansive claims and military buildup in...

Crazy Campaign Ends With Upset, and Hard Work of Governing Begins

David Dapice
 November 10, 2016
US voters elected Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States, and globalization was pummeled. The United States is deeply divided over policies on trade, immigration and alliances for financial, environmental and national security. Democracy was tarnished, too as some politicians...

Russia Sets Out to Bring the Middle East Under New Order

Chris Miller
 November 8, 2016
With a combination of low-cost intervention in Syria, counterterrorism resources and support for Iran, Russia is making strides in bringing the Middle East into multipolar balance. “Moscow is eyeing a new order,” explains Yale scholar Chris Miller. “The main fracture dividing the Middle East will...

China's Leaders Consolidate Power

Frank Ching
 November 3, 2016
China’s Xi Jinping is the second leader of the People’s Republic of China to be designated “core” of party leadership. Deng Xiaoping “invented the title ‘core,’ bestowing it on Jiang Zemin, whom he chose as the party leader after the tumult of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 and the downfall...

Africa's Population Growth Could Undermine Sustainability Goals

Joseph Chamie
 November 1, 2016
If the world’s fertility rates remain constant, global population would more than triple and reach 26 billion by the end of the century. However, many demographers assume fertility rates will ease. The most commonly used projection assumes that global fertility rates decline to 2 births per women...

Four Fallacies About Trade and Globalization

Ajai Gaur and Ram Mudambi
 October 27, 2016
Trade – along with the accompanying fears over foreign competition, job loss and reduced wages – is a hot issue for the US presidential campaign and elections elsewhere. Ajai Gaur and Ram Mudambi, professors of international business strategy at Rutgers University and Temple University, analyze...

Exasperated Neighbors Wish Regime Collapse for North Korea

Shim Jae Hoon
 October 25, 2016
South Korea has lost patience with North Korea after the nation stepped up missile and nuclear tests. “Kim Jong Un, who came to power in December 2011, is impatient to gain recognition as a nuclear state, apparently regarding this as a means to guarantee survival of his state and own life,"...

Philippines President Embraces China

Murray Hiebert
 October 20, 2016
China seized Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea in 2012, igniting tensions with the Philippines. The Philippines brought its case against Chinese encroachments to an international tribunal, and the court ruled in favor of the Philippines in July, shortly after the impulsive and anti-...

Unlike the West, India and China Embrace Globalization

Bruce Stokes
 October 18, 2016
Globalization has won fans in India and China, where economic growth is projected to rise by 7.6 and 6.6 percent, respectively. “Indians and Chinese also express pride in their respective nation’s growing stature on the world stage,” explains Bruce Stokes, director of global economic attitudes at...
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