In The News

Poverty Breeds Insecurity

January 19, 2005
At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, world leaders placed development at the heart of the global agenda by adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 2015. To devise a plan for implementation and recommend strategies for developing...

China's African Safari

Paul Mooney January 3, 2005
Since the 1960s, China has been rather consistent in offering assistance to African countries in agriculture, heavy industries, and infrastructure development. In recent years, Sino-African trade has enjoyed particularly rapid growth. As Paul Mooney reports, many African leaders, regarding China as a reliable friend who has suffered the similar imperialist aggression by Western powers, welcome...

Africa's Hungry Are Fed Bad Policies

Paul Kwengwere December 30, 2004
Amidst plagues of war and disease, hunger remains one of Sub-Saharan Africa's most devastating afflictions. Developed countries have responded with aid, relief efforts, and policy interventions to help the region's struggling farmers. But, as Paul Kwengwere writes, behind the gratitude for this assistance looms a debate regarding the long-term value of the terms involved. IMF loan...

A Thaw in South Asia? – Part II

Huma Fakhar December 27, 2004
Improved relations between South Asia's two most prominent states, India and Pakistan, are crucial to the region's ascending global profile, write Huma Fakhar and Jean-Pierre Lehmann. Encouraging diplomatic developments have diluted some of the hostile sentiments of shared by the two countries, which were once on a path to nuclear war. If intra-regional trade would heat up, as well,...

Beyond Cheap Labor: Lessons for Developing Economies

Diana Farrell December 21, 2004
The specter of China and it's massive fleet of low-cost laborers haunts developing economies worldwide. However, for middle-income countries, focusing on cheap labor is not the answer for sustained economic growth, according to The McKinsey Quarterly. Using Mexico as a basis for discussion, this report offers alternative strategies for successful competition. More effective routes to...

Uzbekistan's Democratic Smoke Screen

Paula R. Newberg December 20, 2004
Many predict a great victory for populist democracy in the Ukrainian recall elections on December 26th. That same day, writes Paula Newberg, democracy will also suffer a great blow in Uzbekistan's elections. Repression and poverty have stifled the country's economic and political ambitions since the fall of the Soviet Union. And its current president, Islam Karimov, strongly believes...

Turkey's Muslim Identity Did Not Prevent Turkey's Intense Relations with Europe

Abdullah Gil December 16, 2004
The debate surrounding Turkey's inclusion as a member of the European Union has prompted a process of political and economic reform that has been remarkably successful and has received widespread popular support. Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul writes that his country has demonstrated a commitment to internal restructuring merits recognition by the European and global community....