In The News

Globalization’s New Left

Nathan Gardels April 6, 2006
Policies meant to promote globalization – cutting public budgets, deregulating markets and liberalizing trade – have created new wealth, especially in Asia. Beneath the veneer of the growing global middleclass, however, is another story – that of the billion people worldwide who have been disenfranchised as their countries make the “structural adjustments” necessary to compete globally. In...

India Nuclear Deal May Face Hard Sell

Glenn Kessler April 6, 2006
The Bush administration’s surprise deal in 2005 with India, which would recognize the nation’s status as a nuclear power, was motivated by both a desire to reward a democratic future superpower and to counter the rise of China. But the deal, largely constructed through US State Department backchannels and secret negotiations, may suffer because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her staff...

On a Tiny Island, Catchy Web Name Sparks a Battle

Christopher Rhoads April 5, 2006
Domain names ending in dot.nu – “nu” meaning “now” in Swedish – sell like hot cakes in Sweden. The rights to operate dot-nu domain names, accorded to the US-based entrepreneur Bill Semich in the late 1990s, have earned him financial success. Semich has applied some of his newfound profits to the impoverished South Pacific island of Niue, via the provision of free wireless internet to the citizens...

World Bank Concerned Over India’s Economic Growth

March 31, 2006
World headlines celebrate India as a globalization success story, but the nation’s rapid growth could invite more headaches than benefits. The problem with India’s growth is its narrow focus, reports economist Priya Basu. A large part of the country’s GDP centers on information technology and software, while manufacturing and agriculture lag. Inadequate infrastructure also poses a challenge, with...

Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World’s Poor?

Pranab Bardhan March 31, 2006
As debates over economic globalization rage, one writer ponders whether “expansion of foreign trade and investment” influences the world’s poor. Author Pranab Bardhan notes that the answer is neither a simple yes or no. By certain measures, the level of extreme poverty has lessened worldwide, but that doesn’t necessarily correlate with globalization and could be the result of some domestic...

Democracy Isn’t “Western”

Amartya Sen March 28, 2006
Since the 1993 publication of Samuel Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations,” culture has made deep inroads into the vocabulary of the political scientist. Huntington argues that the post-Cold War world would be shaped by conflicts between “civilizations,” And US foreign policy would be tied inextricably to the preservation of Western civilization. Huntington’s supporters claim the ongoing war...

Latin Blues

Ernesto Zedillo March 27, 2006
Some analysts anticipate that successful populist campaigns, with irresponsible campaign promises and unrealistic goals, could plunge Latin America into economic disaster and thus reverse democratic gains from the past 20 years. Yet former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, now director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, notes that every Latin American politician recognizes the...