Excerpts

Imbalanced trade is controversial trade - and imbalances in information, income, substitutes, mobility or access are common between wealthy countries and poor ones. Governments can use trade agreements to advance human rights, directly or indirectly, argue Susan Aaronson and Jamie Zimmerman in their book “Trade Imbalance: The Struggle to Weigh Human Rights Concerns in Trade Policymaking.” Aaronson is research associate professor of international affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs and adjunct associate professor at the...

Nations increasingly look to India as a rising economic power to take an active role in international affairs and contribute to resolving a range of global challenges. In his book, “Contemporary Debates in Indian Foreign and Security Policy: India Negotiates Its Rise in the International System,” Harsh Pant, who teaches at King’s College London, identifies major foreign-policy issues for the nation, and suggests that India’s political parties need to put small differences aside and determine long-term goals to develop a workable...

Shoppers, manufacturers, workers and public officials are increasingly discomforted, even feeling guilt, by what has become known as the “China price” - the lowest price possible. Low prices carry the cost of environmental degradation, human-rights violations, health hazards and misery, argues Alexandra Harney in her book, “The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage.” Large multinational firms impose standards, overlooking falsified reports from managers and suppliers. A former reporter for the Financial Times, Harney...

Economic growth, speeded by globalization and demanding populations, is slowly destroying the planet as we know it. Every minute, yet another species vanishes, reducing the earth’s biodiversity and untapped potential of rich plant and animal resources. In his book “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America,” Thomas Friedman makes a passionate argument to recognize what is being lost and to establish a new conservation ethic to reverse some dangerous trends.