In The News

Two Schools of Thought on China – Both Wrong

Eric X. Li November 19, 2013
China’s Communist Party has concluded its Third Plenum, and analysts in the West scrutinize details, hoping to pinpoint the direction of the world’s largest emerging power. Two theories on China’s rise have dominated since 1989, and both are wrong, argues Eric X. Li, venture capitalist and political scientist, in an essay adapted from his lecture at the Oxford Union: The “imminent collapse”...

The Kennedy Temptation

Ian Buruma November 14, 2013
Assassinations of popular leaders prompt many to speculate what might have been had they lived. Citizens mourn that a violent killer or a small group of extremists can dash the hopes and choice of many as was the case with US President John F. Kennedy. “America’s national politics is so poisoned by provincial partisanship – especially among Republicans, who have hated Obama from the beginning –...

Should Extremist Parties Be Banned?

Jan-Werner Mueller November 8, 2013
Some political organizations, formal or informal, often seem bent on fomenting anger, attracting attentionby excluding citizens based on race, religion, gender or other characteristics rather than practicing good governance and solving problems. “Is there a place within liberal democracies for apparently anti-democratic parties?” asks Jan-Werner Mueller for Project Syndicate. He examines the...

Shut and Down

Nayan Chanda October 25, 2013
Without good national governance, globalization could go belly up, warns Nayan Chanda, editor of YaleGlobal in his column for Businessworld. Over the protests of a few legislators, the US Congress did end a partial government shutdown and also lifted an artificial debt ceiling that allowed borrowing and payments to continue. “By pushing the US to the edge of a default and threatening the global...

Lessons From Negotiating With the Taliban

Marc Grossman October 8, 2013
Pakistan released the Afghan Taliban’s second in command to catalyze a peace process. It’s not the first effort. In trying to end fighting in Afghanistan and secure a sustainable representative government for Afghans, from mid-2011 to March 2012, the United States tried encouraging Taliban members to work with the Afghan government. Those talks failed, explains Marc Grossman, the US Special...

Our Democracy Is at Stake

Thomas L. Friedman October 4, 2013
A Republican plan to approve parts of the US budget piecemeal, starting with the popular national parks, would allow a small minority to control spending and end health care, education or other programs favored by Democrats. Thomas Friedman, of the New York Times, argues that “the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake.” He points to structural changes in US politics, including political...

To Shut Down Washington, Republicans Must Ask China's Permission First

Eamonn Fingleton October 2, 2013
China could step in to influence the latest political squabble in the United States by slowing down its purchases of US Treasury debt. A small group of conservative Republicans in US Congress want to slash spending and forced a shutdown of many government operations, while demanding a delay in a health care law, even though that has already slowed rising US health costs. Overseas creditors don’t...