In The News

Is India Emerging as France of Asia?

Alyssa Ayres November 21, 2006
The current India visit by China’s President Hu Jintao to celebrate 50 years of relationship between the two countries will be watched closely by India’s newest friend, the United States. The two Asian giants have shaken off their frosty relations since their 1962 border war, and during the past five years their economic ties have blossomed. But the relationship between the US and India, shorn of...

Managing Globalization: The Trouble with Water

Daniel Altman November 17, 2006
The United Nations Development Program issued a report this month highlighting the growing problem of access to water and sanitation in poor areas of the world. Water is becoming both costlier and more dangerous for those who can afford it least. The UN report made three proposals: first, that access to water is recognized as a human right. Second, that local governments be held accountable...

Vietnam Plays Wary Host to APEC

Thomas Abraham November 16, 2006
Vietnam’s surging economy and increasing attractiveness as a place to do business have raised its profile in Southeast Asia. Its turn at hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leadership summit now offers the country the opportunity to further burnish its image. But that opening has also come with risk. Having a relapse of the avian flu outbreak that hammered the country in 2003 would not...

India’s Economy, Now With Muscle

Mark Sappenfield November 16, 2006
India’s rise as the premier destination for information-technology outsourcing has continued apace, since the government’s decision to privatize education ten years ago, marking the beginning of the Indian labor force’s scaling up. However, service-sector advances do not tell the entire Indian success story. Increasingly, manufacturing has become a rapidly growing sector of the economy....

Can Asia Count on Russian Oil?

Michael Richardson November 16, 2006
Nations rich in oil can wield great influence throughout the world, and the nations who must buy oil look for low prices and reliability. As the world’s largest exporter of natural gas and the second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia, Russia is a major power broker when it comes to energy. Constructing pipelines across Asia, the Russian government is not clear about whether its earliest...

Parched in Australia: Drought Changes Views on Warming

Tim Johnston November 16, 2006
Australia has entered its fourth year of drought, and desperate farmers are selling livestock and worrying about a drop in land prices. A 10 percent increase in global wheat prices is another consequence of Australia’s drought. Extreme weather patterns have prompted Australian leaders to drop their skepticism about global warming and express some concerns. Like the US, Australia refused to sign...

Relax, Democrats Might Not Be So Protectionist After All

Edward Gresser November 14, 2006
Pundits worldwide suggest that Democratic control of the US Senate and House of Representatives after the November 7 election spells doom for free trade. But the Democratic Party has a tradition of economic internationalism, beginning with presidents such as Woodrow Wilson who served from 1913 to 1921. The party’s leaders have put forward a domestic agenda that aims at calming the anxiety of...