In The News

Thailand's Disheartening Aftermath

Pavin Chachavalpongpun August 18, 2010
Throughout the spring, large groups of Thai citizens banded together for protests, risking arrest and injury. After a harsh crackdown in May, the Abhisit government promised reconciliation. But rather than listen and respond to opponents, the leaders control the reconciliation process and work on consolidating their own power, dawdling over election reform and limiting freedom of expression....

New Killer: Climate Change

Sasha Chavkin July 22, 2010
Changes in weather patterns and the landscape, once gradual, have become more abrupt and noticeable with this century. Deserts expand, seas rise, rains pound – etching away land, jobs and homes. Hardest hit are the poorest nations, and families forced to move are left to their own devices by their governments as well as the wealthier nations that continue to emit carbon that fuel extreme weather...

US Leapfrogs Sluggish EU on Financial Reform

Wolfgang Reuter July 20, 2010
The US approved a financial reform law that could nudge the rest of the world, especially Europe, into preventing another financial meltdown. In an interconnected system, fast action on regulating complex securities and speculation can set global patterns into play, as noted by Wolfgang Reuter: “Americans have established a benchmark. European banks that do business in the United States will now...

Obama’s America and the World: A Promise at Risk

Strobe Talbott July 20, 2010
Disappointment swelling since Barack Obama’s election isn’t limited to his domestic opposition – it also runs deep among progressives who long for the US president to move swiftly on stirring campaign promises. Obama entered office with a horrendous legacy, a list longer than that encountered by previous US presidents: ongoing Middle East conflict, hemorrhaging Afghan war, North Korea’s and Iran’...

Seizing the Moment for Clean Energy

Ann Florini July 1, 2010
Government and corporate helplessness to stop oil gushing from a broken pipe in the Gulf of Mexico is a depressing reminder of the world’s utter dependence on a limited supply of fossil fuel that poses so many environmental threats. US President Barack Obama suggested that the accident could transform the nation’s energy policy, much as the 9/11 attacks altered US approach to security. But the...

Growing Challenges of Energy and Environment – Part I

Susan Froetschel June 22, 2010
Emerging economies have joined developed nations in the wild scramble for energy, all taking greater risks in drilling for oil and gas supplies while largely shrugging about effects on climate, the environment or public health. Nations and corporations go to great lengths to explore and drill, but repairs are not so easy, as seen with a broken well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico since April...

Kyrgyzstan Falls Apart: Can Democracy Work in Central Asia?

Benjamin Bidder, Matthias Schepp June 22, 2010
Ethnic violence has swept through Kyrgyzstan, and an article in Der Spiegel suggests that the country could follow the path of other former Soviet satellites, abandoning plans for a democratic system of government. “Central Asia faces a dilemma,” write Benjamin Bidder and Matthias Schepp. “Democracy doesn't seem to work there, but the region's autocratic regimes run the risk of...