In The News

Turkish Funds Helped Group Test Blockade

Sabrina Tavernise, Michael Slackman June 7, 2010
After winning a majority of Palestinian parliamentary seats in 2006, Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007, using the position to launch rockets at Israel. Since 2007, Israel and Egypt isolated Gaza with blockades by land and sea. But supporters of Palestinians from around the globe have also worked to test the blockade, collecting donations, including large funds from opponents to Israel based...

China: Defending its Core Interest in the World – Part I

Orville Schell April 5, 2010
China has shown increasing intransigence towards the world in the defense of what it considers its core interest. This two-part series analyzes how China’s hard line policy may not have helped its best interest. Recent developments in the US-China relationship – both in politics, with the rocky start between presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao, and in business with Google’s partial retreat from...

Roots of Copenhagen Failure: Nature Does Not Recognize Nations

Bo Ekman March 24, 2010
The Copenhagen climate summit was not just a failure to achieve meaningful results to avert climate change, it was also a failure for national actors to find solutions to supranational problems, according Tällberg Foundation Chairman Bo Ekman. Indeed, the summit was likely to fail from the beginning not simply because national self-interest often trumps global common interest, but because the...

Northeast India: Boiling Pot of International Rivalry – Part I

Bertil Lintner February 17, 2010
Northeast India, a melting pot of ethnic groups, with three international borders and territorial disputes, has emerged as a pit of rivalry and intrigues. China claims part of Indian state Arunachal Pradesh, while Pakistan uses neighboring Bangladesh as a conduit to direct terrorist movements against India. After an extensive tour of the region, journalist Bertil Lintner explores the evolution of...

The West Owes Haiti a Bail-Out

Gary Younge February 4, 2010
Last month's earthquake in Haiti may have been a natural disaster, but the devastation extends to the country's unfortunate position in the global political economy. Many Western experts say Haiti's underdevelopment stems from internal factors like government mismanagement and corruption. Yet Haiti's struggles are also due to centuries of destructive external pressures. For...

South Koreans Struggle With Race

Choe Sang-Hun November 3, 2009
South Korea's development in the past half-century is a testament to the opportunities for prosperity globalization affords. Yet, despite South Korea’s export-led growth and its populace's near-obsession with learning English (particularly from foreign-born, white speakers), many South Korean’s are hostile to foreigners living and seeking work among them. Such reactions are likely...

Ancient Greeks Introduced Wine to France, Cambridge Study Reveals

Andrew Hough October 29, 2009
Recent discoveries by Cambridge Professor Paul Cartledge support the theory that it was the Ancient Greeks, and not the Romans or a local group, that first popularized wine in France. Backed by archaeological evidence, Cartledge explains that Greeks intermarried with locals to ensure the survival of their settlement at modern-day Marseilles, and in doing so established trade networks in France...