In The News

Xenophobia’s Threat to Prosperity

Charles Prince April 5, 2006
In the wake of the abortive acquisition of terminal operations at US ports by Dubai Ports World, Congress is considering more than thirty proposals to tighten the rules governing foreign investment in the US. Some of these proposals, writes Charles Prince, CEO of Citigroup, Inc., would spell disaster for the US economy – choking off the foreign investment that now fuels American economic growth...

IT Mergers Have Feds Flailing Against Tech Globalization

J. Nicholas Hoover April 4, 2006
The US Department of Defense aims to scrutinize any foreign entity that wants to buy US information-technology (IT) firms. Before Canada-based Nortel Networks purchased government-contractor PEC Solutions, it had to set up a separate subsidiary and allow the Defense Department to monitor e-mails. Election-year politics in the US could lead to more intense scrutiny. In particular, the government...

A Floundering WTO – Part II

Balakrishnan Rajagopal March 23, 2006
The goal for the Doha Round of WTO talks is to ease trade for developing nations and eliminate poverty. But the 150 members of the WTO have failed to reach agreements that would lower barriers for small and developing nations. In the second of this two-part series about the WTO, MIT professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal describes the world as more divided than ever before, with relatively successful...

The Arab Connection to Chechen Conflict

Faryal Leghari March 21, 2006
An Arab influence continues to transform secessionist efforts in Chechnya into a drive for an Islamic state. Islam, long part of the region’s identity, however, was not the impetus for nationalistic movement to separate from Russia, underway since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Al Qaeda has funded Chechen rebels and also trained many in Afghanistan, and the Russian government has taken...

Economic Patriotism and the Mittal Effect on Europe

M.N. Hebbar March 14, 2006
France has rallied to prevent an Indian firm from taking over Arcelor, the largest steelmaker in Europe, suggesting that the continent is not serious about the free flow of capital, goods and services. French politicians claim they are motivated by “economic patriotism,” a synonym for protectionism, and urge investors and the board of directors to fight the purchase, defying their own best...

A Bush Alarm: Urging US to Shun Isolationism

David E. Sanger March 13, 2006
President Bush’s vision for US foreign policy has evolved in five years. During his first campaign for president, Bush promoted a “humble foreign policy” and avoided talk of globalization. With 9/11, benign neglect turned to a go-it-alone search for security, with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq quickly following. But isolationist policies have not worked, and Bush is a late convert to the...

At Last, the Warmongers Are Prepared to Face the Facts and Admit They Were Wrong

Rupert Cornwell March 13, 2006
After three years of fighting, the loss of tens of thousands of lives, both US and Iraqi, and an expenditure of $200 billion, neoconservatives have started to question the wisdom of the war in Iraq. The shift in thinking extends across the conservative media landscape from William Buckley to George Will, who note that Iran, North Korea and Iraq are “more dangerous” than in 2002 when US President...