Recent YaleGlobal Articles

The global economy runs on oil. Unequal distribution of oil throughout the world bestows power on the few states with ample supplies. Venezuela is one example of a nation that uses oil as leverage in foreign affairs: Besides consolidating his popular base at home, President Hugo Chavez has helped...

Negotiating a free-trade agreement is no easy task. To minimize complications or addition of provisions to cater to special-interest groups, US Congress gave the president the authority to negotiate such pacts, before submitting them for legislative review and an up or down vote. Jobseekers and...

On the surface, China’s fast-growing economy looks superb. However, growing income inequality and the massive inflow of foreign funds can pose problems that often go unrecognized. International economics professor Gustav Ranis categorizes China’s economic problems as a type of “Dutch Disease,” a...

Early in 2003, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman applied a rule common in retail pottery stores, “You break it, you own it,” to the then-impending invasion in Iraq. The succinct analogy warned that the US and other invading nations would bear responsibility for rebuilding Iraq. More than...

China is poised to become the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, surpassing the US. Yet, at this point, while rhetoric from both governments shows growing recognition that climate change could wreak havoc with the global economy, both nations decline to set a mandatory cap on carbon...

The US Congress and the White House have been at odds over the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq for months, but brief historical reflection suggests that the only option left for Washington is to link forces with Iran. Starting in the mid-1950s, the US maintained stability in the Middle East and...

A nuclear-armed Pakistan may have the military capability worthy of an emerging global power, but its external power is belied by an increasingly precarious domestic situation. While the spread of anti-American and pro-Islamist sentiments in the past six years has empowered armed extremists and...

Reactions to the conflict-of-interest allegations against Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, have been muted: Europe won’t criticize Wolfowitz much for fear of losing its monopoly over the IMF; countries that depend on World Bank funding may regard the scandal as leverage against strict...

A fundamentalist streak of Islam within Malaysia is coming into conflict with the flourishing civil society that has made the nation a model of peaceful and democratic development in Southeast Asia. Muslims in Malaysia, unlike their Hindu or Christian compatriots, are ultimately subject to strict...