In The News

The World Is Adrift as Nations Skirmish

Kishore Mahbubani November 23, 2010
As the world becomes totally integrated, organizing principles and institutional structures have not kept up. Members of the G-20, the global group of powerful economies, continue to jockey, avoiding the tough assessments and sacrifices required to resolve pressing global issues from climate change and terrorism to economic crises. Former Singapore diplomat and author Kishore Mahbubani relies on...

The G20: Captive in the Prison of Mercantilism

Ernesto Zedillo November 13, 2010
The G20 meeting of the world’s major economies concluded in Seoul without a serious plan for coordinating macroeconomic policies. Since the first G20 meeting in November 2008, global leaders have recognized that inconsistent, poorly coordinated policies spurred the global economic crisis along. But behaving like the mercantilists of old rather than world powers in the 21st century – delivering a...

Time to Sort Out the Long Overdue Doha Round

Hugh Corbet August 26, 2010
Expanding trade has enriched the world, and completing the Doha Round of negotiations could deliver nations – both rich and poor – from stagnation. The round of World Trade Organization negotiations began in 2001 as an effort to ease poverty by reducing trade barriers. But wealthy nations resist ending protections for their agricultural industries. “By offering to reduce agricultural subsidies...

Beijing: A Global Leader With 'China First' Policy

David Shambaugh June 29, 2010
Observers have long hoped for new openness and cooperation from a confident China. They scan every international event, from the majestic Beijing Olympics of summer 2008 to the recent G-20 summit in Toronto, for indications of China’s policy direction. If any clear trend is visible, it is that the world’s second largest economy largely continues with a narrow, fluctuating foreign-policy approach...

Roots of Copenhagen Failure: Nature Does Not Recognize Nations

Bo Ekman March 24, 2010
The Copenhagen climate summit was not just a failure to achieve meaningful results to avert climate change, it was also a failure for national actors to find solutions to supranational problems, according Tällberg Foundation Chairman Bo Ekman. Indeed, the summit was likely to fail from the beginning not simply because national self-interest often trumps global common interest, but because the...

The Local Syndrome

Nayan Chanda December 3, 2008
The global economy is in a shambles, due to a credit crunch, uncertain values of homes and other assets, and complex loan packages that few people understand. US President George Bush convened a meeting of 20 major economies and acknowledged that emerging economies like China, India and Brazil deserve a role in any institutions that monitor the global economy, that protectionism and nationalism...

We Either Lead, Or We Get Left

Gordon Smith July 18, 2008
The G8 meetings may soon be in flux as new countries enter the talks or some are excluded. There are many possible options for future G8 meetings. Certain countries can be dropped to make room for others. Another possibility is that membership will be expanded to include the Outreach 5 countries- Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Either way, Canada, as a leader in building...