In The News

Africa Hosts its First Major Anti-Globalization Forum

January 25, 2006
For the sixth time since 2000, NGO representatives, fair-trade advocates, anti-globalization protestors and activists of all kinds unite at the World Social Forum, this week in Mali. By tackling the problems of inequality, debt relief and trade realities that trouble the developing world, the forum serves as foil to the World Economic Forum, a meeting of the world’s economic elite, held...

"Voice of the People"

January 23, 2006
After polling more than 50,000 people from around the world, a World Economic Forum survey, administered by Gallup, "overwhelmingly found that political leaders are dishonest, have too much power and are too easily influenced." The results of the survey, branded the "Voice of the People," were announced just before the start of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in...

David's Friend Goliath

Michael Mandelbaum January 20, 2006
Foreign leaders, demonstrators and citizens in opinion polls around the world do not think twice about, criticizing the US as a threat to international stability. Despite such widespread criticism, few attempt unified action to oppose or restrict the world power. Michael Mandelbaum calls this discrepancy the most significant feature of 21st-century international relations and offers two reasons...

Peru May Join Latin America’s Populist Tilt to Left

David Luhnow January 18, 2006
A populist movement is gathering momentum in Latin America. Moderate socialist candidate Michelle Bachelet has just been elected as the first female president of Chile. More radical Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala’s support has also been rising rapidly in recent polls. Humala is a left-wing politician who, if elected in early April, would likely wrestle with free trade and free-...

Educating for the 21st Century – Part II

Orly Friedman January 17, 2006
Orly Friedman visits an experimental boarding school that introduces the tools of globalization to impoverished children. Started by technology entrepreneur Abraham George, Shanti Bhavan aims to be a world-class institution that propels India’s poorest students into the prosperous digital age, giving them access to world news and computer learning software. Despite challenges of running a modern...

No Level Playing Field in Football’s Globalisation

Larry Elliott January 14, 2006
In an increasingly prevalent variation on the “brain drain” issue that troubles small, poorer nations, “leg drain” is taking its toll on the world of football. But this trend is a mixed bag. A recent study suggests that globalization has a two-prong effect on the sport: It contributes to increasingly higher salaries for the best football players in Europe, yet also serves as an equalizer for...

Gunning for the World

David Morton January 13, 2006
The National Rifle Association has traditionally represented a highly specific interest group among the US population. Increasingly, though, the NRA has come to link the success of its pro-gun lobbying in the US with similar struggles underway in other nations. NRA leaders have exhibited a sophisticated understanding of increased interconnectivity among world cultures, and the most practiced...