In The News

Local Brands Lead Race for China’s Savvy Consumers

Rachel Morarjee June 30, 2016
Chinese consumers prefer local brands and Chinese firms are increasingly taking market share away from foreign rivals. New Chinese firms “heed digital trends, adapt to regional tastes and respond to customers’ increasingly sophisticated demands,” explains Rachel Morarjee for Reuters. A report from Bain & Company and Kantar Worldpanel suggests that 26 consumer goods ranging from groceries to...

Migration Trend: Young Move to Lands of Aging Rich

Joseph Chamie June 30, 2016
The world’s most troublesome borders for illegal migration have one thing in common – more older people on one side than the other. Large gaps in the median age on either side show a difference of 19 years for Northern Africa and Southern Europe, and 11 years for the United States and Central America. “Age differences between sending and receiving nations are a powerful force exerting migratory...

War of Words: What's in the Name “Rohingya”?

Azeem Ibrahim June 16, 2016
Myanmar's constitution recognizes 135 ethnic groups, but excludes the Rohingya. Some estimates put the minority at 1.4 million, a fraction of the nation’s more than 50 million people. Nationalists have concocted a revisionist history, insisting that Rohingya Muslims are really from Bangladesh, brought in by British colonizers, to deny the group citizenship rights and identification cards...

March of Arab Spring on Pause

Hicham Alaoui May 10, 2016
The Arab Spring, a wave of protests sweeping through the Middle East in 2011, inspired hope for more freedoms in the region. Such anticipation was short-lived as authoritarian rulers recalibrated strategies for control by strengthening alliances with constituencies including elites, secular middle classes and workers who are wary of rapid changes that might threaten economic stability, explains...

"My Name Is Sadiq Khan and I'm the Mayor of London"

Nabanita Sircar May 10, 2016
Cities and nations inspire, not when their citizens fear and denigrate immigrants, but instead welcome the newcomers’ skills and ideas and celebrate their rising influence. “In a world where terrorism and Islamophobia is spreading rapidly, London showed its inherent multicultural, diverse character when it elected the first Muslim Mayor, Sadiq Khan,” explains Nabanita Sircar for Outlook magazine...

Refugees and the “Globalization of Indifference”

Uri Friedman April 20, 2016
In 2013, Pope Francis met with immigrants in Lampedusa and warned about a “globalization of indifference.” Three years later, steady flows of refugees continue. “Francis has made the plight of migrants and refugees a core component of his pastoral work… by saying Christians should build bridges, not walls,” writes Uri Friedman for the Atlantic. “He’s argued that the wanderings of the dispossessed...

Insulting Erdogan: Merkel Falls Flat Over Satirical Poem

Stefan Kuzmany April 18, 2016
Free speech vents anger, and an ability to ignore insults, instead pursuing debate and analysis of good policies, lends power. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is moving ahead on prosecution of a comedian who made a crude satiric comment about the Turkish president in a crisis of state that reveals poor judgment and diminished power from both heads of state. A German law prohibits the insulting of...