In The News

Job Description for the Next Pope

R. Scott Appleby February 3, 2004
Historian R. Scott Appleby believes the Catholic Church must ensure the next Pope fulfills a broad range of qualifications, not least of which is the ability to redefine the Church's understanding of current issues. Specifically, three challenges will confront the next Pope, and indeed the Catholic Church. Increased secularization, "indifferent or hostile to religious faith,"...

A False Alarm: Overcoming Globalization's Discontents

Richard N. Cooper January 29, 2004
Jagdish Baghwati believes that globalization is unambiguously a positive phenomenon and aims to prove it in his recent book, "In Defense of Globalization." According to this review, Baghwati's book also aims to enlighten globalization's critics. Baghwati tackles two major criticisms of globalization: that it causes poverty, and that it depresses wages. He cites data that...

A Rising New Force in World Public Opinion

Immanuel Wallerstein January 28, 2004
The slogan of the World Social Forum reads, "another world is possible" - as in, a world devoid of capitalism and neo-liberal trade policies. From a small group of protesters who successfully scuttled the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle, the group has quickly grown to global proportions, says social theorist Immanuel Wallerstein. Over 100,000 people attended the most recent WSF meeting in...

One Hand Clapping in the Caucasus

Kenneth Weisbrode January 26, 2004
As Georgia's newly elected president takes office this week, much of the world has high hopes for the future of his new government. Outsiders have been trying to influence developments in Georgia and neighboring Azerbaijan for some time now, says Eurasia scholar Kenneth Weisbrode, but if recent history is any indication, the path to stability in the Caucasus region is still quite rocky....

An Ancient Model for China's New Power

Eric Teo Chu Cheow January 21, 2004
Asia is changing politically and culturally as a result of China's rise, says this article in the International Herald Tribune. Harkening back to the days of the Ming and Qing dynasties, China's recent approach to its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region emphasizes securing its immediate borders, placing itself as the 'heart' of the region, and giving more 'favors'...

Africa's Potemkin Deception

Michael Holman January 19, 2004
Just as the Russian Prince Potemkin once created mock villages in the Ukraine and the Crimea to convince Catherine the Great of her empire’s health, so may the continent’s modern benefactors be deluding themselves and the world about its progress, argues Michael Holman, former Africa editor of the Financial Times. Sub-Saharan Africa remains mired in poverty, disease, and debt, yet manufactured...

Follow the Leader on Iraqi Debt

Timothy W. Guinnane January 15, 2004
In trying to rebuild a shattered Iraq, Washington is asking other governments to reduce or restructure debts owed them by the war-torn country. With over $120 billion at stake, this is not a small request. Still, debt reduction is an important goal, says Yale economic historian Timothy W. Guinnane. As in post-WWII Germany, he writes, debt reduction could facilitate Iraq's economic rebirth...