In The News

The Al Qaeda Challenge

November 10, 2006
Intelligence officers in the UK have investigated 200 extremist networks operating in the UK and thwarted at least five terrorist attacks since the London bus bombings in summer 2005. Many suspects are British citizens, and public officials reflect on their society and its policies, trying to determine why so many British youth join extremist causes. Statistics released by MI5 Security Service...

Unifying the UN

Shaukat Aziz November 9, 2006
An increasingly interconnected world cannot withstand enormous inequality. An overhaul of the UN system is in order or the international body will be marginalized, warn prime ministers from Pakistan, Mozambique and Norway, who were charged by the UN secretary general to offer recommendations on improving policies in three key areas: sustainable development, response to world crises and...

Africa’s World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old’s Eyes

Sharon LaFraniere November 2, 2006
Every year, trafficking of children produces $10 billion worth of trade. Forced child labor is endemic in desperately poor areas of the world, and the trade in child workers is the modern-day vision of slavery. Journalist Sharon LaFraniere spent time with a group of children, some as young as six, and details their fatigue, pain and hopelessness. In countries where parents cannot afford to feed...

Expatriates Face a Changing Reality in Gulf Countries

N. Janardhan October 25, 2006
About 13 million foreigners make up about 70 percent of the workforce in six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Governments in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar worry about their societies’ over-reliance on foreign help. Increasing unemployment rates and population growth has prompted nationalization and new limits on foreign workers in the...

How to Fix the Global Economy

Joseph E. Stiglitz October 4, 2006
The world has many imbalances, including ballooning debt held by the US and China’s growing trade surplus. World leaders recognize the problems – but tend to place blame on policies from other countries. Economist Joseph Stiglitz suggests that the problems are interconnected in many ways, systemic in nature, and therefore require a global effort. He urges every country to examine its own...

In Teeming India, Water Crisis Means Dry Pipes and Foul Sludge

Somini Sengupta October 3, 2006
Some middle-class neighborhoods in India’s wealthiest cities have ample plumbing and the infrastructure for supplying water, but not the actual liquid itself. India’s major cities fail to provide reliable tap water throughout the day, and this article from “The New York Times” describes how some women devote entire days planning to secure extra water. In terms of industry and technology,...

Rising Trade, Abundance Should Benefit All

David Crane September 12, 2006
Global competition provides the benefit of low-priced goods for the poorest citizens of the world and also has provided jobs that have lifted millions of people from poverty. But globalization has also meant lost jobs, benefits or security for other people. The challenge for policymakers throughout the world is to ensure that globalization’s benefits are widely shared, according to Ben Bernanke,...