In The News

A More Just Fair Trade Is Needed

H. A. Harry Hendrarto May 14, 2003
The World Fair Trade Day on May 17 highlights sustainable development and the connections between economic production and the environment globally. Free trade has benefited the developed world and contributed to increasing poverty in the developing world, says the author of this article. Countries in Europe and North America have the greatest share of revenues from free trade. International...

U.S. to Blame for Derailing Process of Denuclearisation on Korean Peninsula

May 12, 2003
As the new South Korean Prime Minister begins his first official visit to the United States, North Korea's Central News Agency released a report detailing the central role the United States has played and continues to play in the nuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The report is a scathing indictment of US foreign policy and holds the US solely responsible for undermining North and...

Korea’s New Wave

Suki Kim May 10, 2003
North Korea and South Korea have vastly different political systems and economies, and occupy distinct positions in world politics. Yet in recent years, people in North and South Korea seem to be share a growing resentment towards American involvement in Korean affairs. In spite of the apparent ‘Americanization’ of South Korea, most South Koreans believe that American involvement has impeded a...

Early Globalization and the Slave Trade

Robert Harms May 9, 2003
While many are aware of the "triangular" slave trade among Europe, Africa and the Americas in the 18th century, few people realize that Asian-European trade was also instrumental in sustaining the exchange of human slaves. For example, French ships carrying European goods to Asia returned with cowry shells and Indian textiles valued by West Africans. On the African coast, traders...

Happy Birthday, Globalisation

Richard Tomkins May 6, 2003
Twenty years ago, when Harvard Business School's Theodore Levitt asserted that global brands would rule the world, many CEOs jumped on the global marketing bandwagon. Homogenized products from soft drinks to software came onto the global market, and it seemed as if world tastes would converge so quickly that a smart company simply needed to sell one product to all the world to become a...

Europe's Identity Crisis

Steven Erlanger May 5, 2003
Europe's left wing has given the right a boost. Popular liberal fears of Americanization and "coca-colonization" have fostered the belief that individual cultures are in danger of extinction. And France's extreme right is exploiting this pervasive anxiety in the current presidential elections. Though Jacques Chirac is sure to win ultimately, the neo-fascist Jean-Marie Le...

North Korea's Missile Trade Helps Fund Its Nuclear Program

Bertil Lintner May 5, 2003
A New York Times article on May 5 says that “tacitly acknowledging that North Korea may not be deterred from producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, President Bush is now trying to marshal international support for preventing the country from exporting nuclear material.” While preventing the export of nuclear material has emerged as the top priority the US government is also considering how to...