In The News

How to Cure the Globalization Backlash

Harold Sirkin December 23, 2016
Those who fear globalization are often dismissed as bigots, but anxiety over security and jobs is another factor, explains author and professor Harold Sirkin for Forbes. Many in the developed world have lost confidence. “Unfortunately, too many people in the industrialized West have too much idle time on their hands – and not by choice,” he explains and that compounds the anger and fear. “People...

The Age of Pain

William Davies November 15, 2016
Populism arises out of grievances. “At what point do we attribute denunciations to the state of the world, and at what point to the state of the individual making them?” writes William Davies for New Statesman, adding that “the line separating ‘public politics’ from ‘private distress’ is culturally constructed, and not always very clear, even as we seek to police it.” Populist movements offer...

In the Art World, Globalism’s New Spin

Holland Cotter November 7, 2016
When the struggling US economy turned to globalization as its saving grace in the 1990s, the art world embraced globalism as a key principle. However, the promise of economic globalization has faded for many, and similarly, globalism fell out of favor among some curators. Globalism is returning to the world of contemporary art in the form of global consciousness, explains Holland Cotter of the...

The Battle of the Burkini

Ian Buruma September 6, 2016
French coastal communities went too far with rules targeting Muslim women who visit beaches in the so-called burkini – a bathing suit that covers most of the body but not the face. “A grotesque photograph soon appeared in newspapers around the world of three French policemen, one of them with a machine gun slung across his back, forcing a woman to undress on a beach in Nice,” explains Ian Buruma...

Electorate Tremors: The Era of the Angry Voter Is Upon Us

Julia Amalia Heyer, Gordon Repinski, Mathieu von Rohr, Christoph Scheuermann and Holger Stark July 15, 2016
Voters are outraged about intense global competition that has put local factories and other workplaces on notice, reducing jobs and wages. Voters in democracies worry about losing control over communities, and they blame all facets of globalization. “The outrage is directed against elites in politics and in the business community, against the established political parties, against the ‘mainstream...

Black Lives Matter Is a Global Cause

Ishaan Tharoor July 13, 2016
The United States is in turmoil over gun rights, police shootings, and racial and political divides during a heated presidential campaign. Protesters associated with the Black Lives Matter movement gathered around the nation after police shootings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. During a protest in Dallas, a sniper targeted police, killing five officers and injuring 11 others, and...

Youth to Foot Bill for Baby Boomer Budget Incompetency

Jessica Irvine July 1, 2016
Young adults must become engaged in politics or risk living in poverty. “Borrowing rates are historically low,” explains Jessica Irvine for the Sydney Morning Herald. “But eventually the books should balance, and when they do, they will do so on the shoulders of future generations who will pay higher taxes than otherwise.” Her objections to rising debt and increased costs for education, housing...