In The News

Harper’s: Buddhism Meets the Chinese Economy

Will Ford April 17, 2018
China’s fast-growing economy brings cultural changes and heightens tensions in Tibet. “As in many regions in China’s interior, the government was trying to kick-start development via tourism, promoting Tibetan culture, horse trekking, and hiking,” writes Will Ford for Harper’s. He describes Lhamo, a lopsided community with a main street that straddles two provinces, Gansu and Sichuan. The former...

The Guardian: Demise of the Nation State

Rana Dasgupta April 6, 2018
Nation states are losing influence, contends Rana Dasgupta for the Guardian, and the political systems are obsolete for confronting modern challenges that are either focused and local or global in nature. Systems based on borders struggle to deal with complex companies, technologies, immense wealth and social movements that no longer respect borders. “Exhaustion, hopelessness, the dwindling...

New York Times: Globalization’s Backlash Comes at Wrong Time

Neil Irwin March 28, 2018
US voters responded to promises of tariffs, jobs and protectionism during the 2016 presidential campaign and spurred a backlash to globalization: “It is coming after the major costs of globalization have already been borne,” explains Neil Irwin for the New York Times. “And it comes just as billions of people who have become integrated into the global economy over the last three decades are...

Brookings: Globalization, Technology, Inequality

Zia Qureshi February 22, 2018
People even in the world’s most advanced and wealthiest economies are unhappy and politically fractured – this despite a full recovery from the 2008 financial crisis and growing economies. “The increasingly unequal sharing of the economic pie lies at the heart of the rising social discontent,” explains Zia Qureshi for Brookings. “Income and wealth inequalities have risen practically in all major...

New Statesman: The New Age of Great Power Politics

John Bew February 14, 2018
Political scientist Samuel Huntington and others have theorized that elites as beneficiaries of globalization demonstrate less loyalty for nations. Many anticipated great power rivalries to subside after the Cold War, but resentment emerged about global endeavors as revealed by Brexit and Donald Trump’s election: “Two of the nations that had evangelised most about the liberal international order...

Quartz: At Davos, Search on How to Save Globalization

Jason Karaian January 26, 2018
Most global leaders attending the World Economic Forum that meets annually are beneficiaries and strong supporters of globalization. Many also agree that globalization and distribution of benefits could be better managed. The general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation suggests that globalization has failed working people with low pay and insecurity. The CEO of ICICI Bank in...

Deutsche Welle: Indian Prime Minister Modi Identifies Three Global Threats

January 24, 2018
The world is not preparing for its most pressing challenges, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized global institutions for failing to recognize widespread aspirations or to confront reality. He addressed the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of corporate, government and other leaders to review global priorities. Modi “urged sweeping reforms to modernize and restructure current...