In The News

The New Global Food Fight

Kathleen McAfee June 6, 2003
Genetically modified (GM) food offered as aid by the US is not simply manna from the heavens for people in famine-stricken countries, says Yale scholar Kathleen McAfee. African nations have refused GM food aid from the US not just because they fear losing access to the European Union market, where imported GM foods are subject to substantial restrictions. They also worry about environmental...

Senators Demand Ban on Imports from Burma

Anwar Iqbal June 5, 2003
In the wake of the detainment of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the opposition party in Myanmar, two US senators are proposing a legislation to ban all imports from the country until it improves its record on human rights and democracy. If the bill passes, the US will join business and labor groups that have already united in support of sanctions. Already, many major...

Greening U.S. Foreign Aid through the Millennium Challenge Account

Nigel Purvis June 5, 2003
Last year, US President George W. Bush proposed the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) as part of his National Security Strategy report. With its goals to provide development assistance to certain developing countries, the MCA calls for an unprecedented increase in U.S. foreign aid. If the MCA is passed by congress, it will undoubtedly play a major role in fighting global poverty. However, says...

The Arch of Globalization

Abdel-Moneim June 5, 2003
In the first installment of a two-part essay, Abdel-Moneim, director of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Egypt, offers five possible genealogies of the US-led war in Iraq. First, he argues, the war was about opening up the Middle East to processes of globalization. Globalization has been uneven, affecting world regions and countries differently, and the Middle East is the...

Getting to the Core

Geof Wheelwright June 4, 2003
As private companies find themselves growing bigger and bigger, they also find that they now have to account for many extra functions – such as maintaining parking lots, managing cafeterias, etc. – that are not considered their "core" business. Outsourcing, according to this article, can allow personnel to focus on their core functions by letting outside firms take care of the non-...

India Fears Impact of Bid to Curb Jobs Exports

Edward Alden June 4, 2003
Following the lead of many other American and British firms, the British insurance company, Prudential, is planning to export jobs from the UK to India. Outsourcing to low-cost offshore centers is saving companies billions of dollars a year, since it allows them to set up shop where labor is plentiful and cheap. Though company executives maintain that outsourcing merely follows economic law and...

Asean Needs New Tools for New Threats

Amitav Acharya June 4, 2003
Though the interdependency inherent in globalization renders all member nations of ASEAN increasingly vulnerable to external threats, this same inter-dependency must be drawn upon if these challenges are to be met effectively, says this article in The Singapore Times. The author, deputy director of Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, states that financial volatility,...