In The News

Privatization vs. Democracy

Salah Hemeid October 13, 2003
The chief US Administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, recently announced that Iraq's state-owned industries will be sold off to private investors in an effort to boost the country's struggling economy. The new policy also allows for 100 percent foreign ownership of all industries except for oil, which will remain under government control for the time being. Iraqis view their oil reserves as...

Why Does One Country Draw More Investment Than Another?

David Dollar October 10, 2003
Why do some developing countries enjoy the highest growth rates in the world while others flounder? The World Bank set out to answer this question by comparing four developing nations - China, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh - that have grown at strikingly different rates. Though these countries were equally under-developed at the beginning of the 1990s, China’s economy has since soared, while...

'North Korea is a Symptom of a Larger Problem'

October 8, 2003
While terrorism continues to preoccupy Western countries, some security thinkers worry about the disintegration of the non-proliferation regime. North Korea has withdrawn from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and Iran may follow suit. In an interview with YaleGlobal Editor Nayan Chanda, President of the International Crisis Group and former Foreign Minister of Australia Gareth Evans...

Is the Arab Reform Chorus Serious or Fraudulent?

Rami G. Khouri October 1, 2003
Rami G. Khouri, executive editor of Lebanon's Daily Star, argues that the 'guns and cash' provided by donor nations influence the rhetoric of Arab states. Whatever the foreign donor takes up as an important issue, the Arab state parrots in turn. For example, Middle Eastern governments have adopted the rhetoric of human rights reform, equitable development, and now the 'war on...

SARS Proved Health is Global Public Good

Michael Merson September 24, 2003
When SARS was first reported by China to the World Health Organization last February, the world was little prepared for the consequences that were to follow from that pneumonia-like disease. We are only now beginning to understand the toll the disease took on individuals as well as entire economies and societies. Dr. Michael Merson, dean of Yale University's School of Public Health, says...

Protests Greet Yet Another WTO Meeting

Pranab Bardhan September 8, 2003
As the World Trade Organization prepares to meet in Cancun, Mexico, backers and detractors of globalization are clashing again, with each side claiming to represent the interests of the world's poor. Those opposed to globalization in its current form point to an increase in inequality and poverty in countries that have opened up to international capital and corporations, while supporters...

Who's Winning the War on Terror?

Ahmed Rashid September 5, 2003
Two years after the September 11 attacks on the US, the American-led war on terror is far from over. Writing from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, veteran journalist and author Ahmed Rashid says that the Taliban is growing in strength, drawing support from Islamic extremists and tribal brethren in Pakistan. US forces and the Afghan soldiers they've trained are under persistent attack from...