In The News

Emerging Challenges: What's In Store for the New Global Powers

Erich Follath October 23, 2013
The emerging economies are on track to be more influential and work as a united front against the West, notes Erich Follath for Spiegel Online: “For the first time in 150 years, the combined output of the developing world's three leading economies – Brazil, China and India – is about equal to the combined GDP of the longstanding industrial powers of the North[,] Canada, France, Germany,...

Cambodians Refuse to Accept Rigged Elections

Elizabeth Becker October 15, 2013
Cambodians are connected to the world through trade, investment, tourism, cultural events, social media and dual citizenship. The connections influence how the citizens deal with their long-running authoritarian regime. With a per capita income less than $1000, many Cambodians refuse to support the government of Hun Sen, who has been in office for 28 years. The prime minister no longer convinces...

Bad Policies Caused the Lampedusa Tragedy

Hans-Jürgen Schlamp October 10, 2013
A boat carrying 500 refugees sank just within sight of the Italian island of Lampedusa. More than 250 died and more are missing. The refugees from Somalia, Eritrea and other hopeless states took off from African coast just 160 kilometers away. Europe has failed to offer a political solution to the refugee crisis. More than 200,000 refugees have landed in Lampedusa since 1999 with up to 20,000...

Nairobi Foreshadows Tomorrow’s Urban Conflicts

David Kilcullen October 1, 2013
The globe is more urban than ever with more than 65 percent of all people living in cities compared with 2 percent in 1800. Urbanization, the bulk of it near coasts, is a global megatrend challenging world leaders and planners along with climate change and population growth. The patterns expose vulnerabilities and encourage inequality: “The unprecedented pace and scale of urban growth will strain...

Dignity Deficit Fuels Uprisings in the Middle East

Nayef Al-Rodhan September 10, 2013
The Arab Spring has pummeled a region with waves of hope for recovering lost dignity, short-lived success and then despair and more despair. Unending conflict has killed many and left millions more refugees. The international community has long empowered brutal dictators, in pursuit of oil or short-term stability, and then pointedly ignored dire conditions, overlooking blatant violations of human...

How the Wealthy Keep Themselves on Top

Tim Harford August 20, 2013
Inequality is pronounced and widening, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, but also Australia and Canada. People tend to care more about inequality during times of economic crisis, suggests Tim Harford. “The uncomfortable truth is that market forces – that is, the result of freely agreed contracts – are probably behind much of the rise in inequality,” he writes for the...

Climate Change and Financial Instability Seen as Top Global Threats

June 28, 2013
The Pew Research Center survey assessed global attitudes in 39 nations and identified climate change seen as a threat by 54 percent, financial stability by 52 percent, Islamic extremism by 49 percent and nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran by less than 40 percent of more than 37,000 respondents. Concern about climate change was highest in Latin America at 65 percent. Top concerns of...