In The News

Nation of the Forest

Cathy Shufro May 30, 2011
Urbanization’s many pressures make it easier for people to alter long-held customs. For example, in Bhutan, city dwellers didn’t protest a rule aimed at protecting forests by reducing the number of prayer flags to mourn a loved one’s death, explains Cathy Shufro in an article for Yale Alumni Magazine. “Bhutanese have formulated guidelines, infused with Buddhist values, for how to reconcile old...

The Force of Special Forces

Lawrence Korb May 10, 2011
Governments across the globe and US industries have good reason to parse details of the US mission that killed Osama bin Laden. The mission’s success will have profound effects on US military strategy, organization and spending, argues Lawrence Korb, former assistant defense secretary in the Reagan administration, in an opinion essay for Politico. In recent decades, US legislators have assessed...

The West Likes Democracy for Some Arabs, But Not Others

Dilip Hiro April 22, 2011
The US has reasons for hurrying some Arab authoritarian leaders to the exit and not others. Syria and Bahrain are cases in point, explains author Dilip Hiro. Citizens of both nations resist leaders from minority sects and ongoing discrimination. Syria is 68 percent Sunni, run by a president, an Alawi, which is a Shia sub-sect; Bahrain is 70 percent Shia with a Sunni king. Syria has long defied...

NATO's Last Mission?

Fred Kaplan April 19, 2011
With disagreement erupting among its 28 member states, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization operation in Libya strains the alliance started in 1949 for mutual defense against external attack. Similar disagreements emerged with interventions in Kosovo and Afghanistan. For each military operation, allies impose conditions on their involvement. The US, once critical of such conditions, now leaves...

Westward Ho: Asians March Into Africa – Part I

Johan Lagerkvist March 16, 2011
New trade routes are taking hold, linking Africa’s rich resources with the industrial needs in Asia and South America, and this two-part YaleGlobal series analyzes the emerging economic, political and security partnerships. The 2008 global economic crisis and slow recovery for the US and Europe have only reinforced the South-South partnerships, shifting trade relations and fueling economic growth...

How a One Drink Changed Fortunes, Incited Protests

Farok J. Contractor March 9, 2011
Tea, native to Asia, reached Europe in 1606, after Dutch traders sent a bulk tea shipment; within a century, the caffeinated drink became a popular beverage. Globalization’s pace was slower then, but the resulting prosperity and pain were still immense, explains Farok J. Contractor, professor of management and global business. He traces the course of tea’s globalization over the centuries: High...

Revolution U

Tina Rosenberg February 24, 2011
Following Egypt’s uprising, attention focused on links between protest organizers in Cairo and the Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS, in Serbia. The group was formed by leaders of the movement that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Online exchange of information and strategy from Serbia helped the Egyptian movement. Yet CANVAS has worked in more than 50 countries...