In The News

Can Social Media Campaigns End Child Labor?

Humphrey Hawksley February 10, 2012
Acts of intervention – with military action, aid and promotion of trade – have characterized international politics since the Cold War. Corporate intervention can now be added to the list of tools for alleviating poverty and encouraging development and education in impoverished nations. Social media and attention to global supply chains are exposing unfair labor practices, particularly child...

Where Will the Muslim Brotherhood Take Egypt’s Economy?

Mohamed El Dahshan February 6, 2012
The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt’s largest opposition group, so it’s no surprise that its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, secured nearly half the votes in parliamentary elections. Campaign rhetoric proposed alcohol restrictions, gender-segregated beaches, and revision of Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. Ready to step into power, Islamists already have more pressing matters: an...

Hunger Pains Test North Korea’s Dynastic Succession

Shim Jae Hoon February 1, 2012
Isolated North Korea has carried out early stages of transfer of power from Kim Jong Il to his third son, Kim Jong Un, with elaborate titles and displays of respect. But the government faces grave challenges stemming from decades of prioritizing military spending capped by a nuclear-weapons program, acrimonious relations with South Korea since the 1950-1953 war, and steadfast refusal to engage...

Global Implications of China’s Challenges – Part II

Borje Ljunggren January 18, 2012
Speculative bubbles and problematic governance in large economies can quickly spill over to disrupt other economies. This two-part YaleGlobal series analyzes global and local challenges facing China and their impact. In the second and final article, Borje Ljunggren, former Swedish ambassador to China, writes that a protest over corruption in the village of Wukan, Guangdong, shows in a microcosm...

A Global Consensus to Rise and Occupy

Laurence Brahm December 15, 2011
The year 2011 has given rise to a wave of peaceful protests around the globe. In Tunisia, Egypt, Europe, the United States and now even Russia, citizens organize via social media, convene in public spaces and protest policies that fail to protect the public interest. Alarm is building about governments and corporations that mismanage diminishing resources, argues Laurence Brahm, attorney and...

Chanting “Russia Without Putin,” Flash Mobs Roil Moscow

Fred Weir December 9, 2011
Russians are using social media to report vote rigging by authorities and organize flash protests in the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. “For more than a decade, Russians appear to have quietly accepted Vladimir Putin's system of ‘managed democracy,’” writes Fred Weir for the Christian Science Monitor, explaining that measures “ensure that only Kremlin-approved parties...

Toppling of Libyan Dictator Legitimizes R2P Doctrine

Bennett Ramberg November 29, 2011
The war in Libya broke new ground, lending support for the international community to take a strong stand against dictators who threaten their own people. Bennett Ramberg, formerly with the US State Department, analyzes recent wars and how intervention in Libya compares. After horrific massacres in Rwanda and Srebrenica, the Canadian government took the lead in 2001, convening diplomats in...