Recent YaleGlobal Articles

Pakistan's foreign policy, constructed for short-term survival, is as fragile as a deck of cards. Bordering China, India, Afghanistan and Iran, the nation with nuclear weapons and a literacy rate that approaches 50 percent, has been led by General Pervez Musharraf since 1999 when he assumed...

The decade after the end of the Cold War was a remarkably stable moment in international relations. American hegemony was uncontested because it was relatively benign – and even worked to strengthen international institutions and multilateralism. That has changed. In the second article of a two-...

Of the top six automobile-manufacturing countries in the world, the US and China are the only ones that lack universal government-backed health care. US workers expect employers like Ford, General Motors and Chrysler to provide cradle-to-grave health coverage, a significant cost burden not shared...

In recent decades, the South Pacific has been a friendly region for the US and its interests, including islands that sit on Asia's doorstep. But the rise of China and its growing interest in the Pacific islands may be emerging as yet another area of possible concern. In this final article of...

For more than a decade, the US was a lone superpower in terms of economic, diplomatic and military might. But China has steadily stepped up to the challenge, demonstrating its intent to serve as a counterweight to US influence when it comes to global affairs. In the first of this series of articles...

Not only democracies but dictators and authoritarian governments pursue the benefits of economic freedom. The recent passing of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman provokes economist Pranab Bardhan to reflect on the connections that these two...

One can sympathize with the Bush administration’s desire to shift gears in the Middle East, from merely reacting to Iraq’s instability to actively pushing for peace in the region. Author and Mideast scholar Fawaz Gerges sees Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic mission, however, as a...

Skilled terrorists are persuasive, strategic and analytical – and a good example of this is the Indonesian terrorist leader, Hambali, who has pursued his goal of bringing Muslim nations under Islamic rule. The operations chief of the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah, Hambali has been jailed...

Trade has not been a priority for the Bush administration, and negotiations have stalled over a free-trade agreement between the US and South Korea. Meanwhile, South Korea has lots of leverage and plenty of alternative markets, including China. The inability of the US to reach such a major trade...