In The News

Elite Ponder Threats to Globalization

D. Ravi Kanth February 1, 2007
World leaders meeting for the World Economic Forum have identified plenty of problems, but few solutions for global challenges. Risks to globalization include global warming, sharp inequality and increasing conflict. Yet the consensus on the list of challenges has failed to push leaders into action. A poll revealed that more than half of chief executive officers for major corporations express...

Who Screwed Up Globalization?

Steven Weber January 23, 2007
Activists who attend the World Social Forum in Africa look for ways to slow or even reverse some parts of globalization. The activists worry about common global problems that go unsolved – pollution, global warming, health risks, overpopulation – because no profits stem from tackling such issues. Favorite targets for activists’ wrath, since the first World Social Forum gathering in Porto Alegre...

The Other Malaysia: ASEAN and Globalization

Farish A Noor January 18, 2007
An integrated world economy is seen by many as beneficial for the developing world, but recent events in Southeast Asia cause some to question this optimism. After an announcement to impose controls on foreign capital in Thailand led to a 14 percent drop in Bangkok’s stock market, the newly-installed government was forced to retract its statement in a desperate effort to avoid a repeat of the...

Vietnam’s Roaring Economy Is Set for the World Stage

Keith Bradsher October 30, 2006
Vietnam’s renunciation of statist economics in favor of capitalism in the early 1990s was a surprising development for the global markets. Along with China’s embrace of the market, Vietnam’s success story has raised the living standards of its citizens, drawn a large contingent of high-skilled émigrés back to the country and created a strong base for future development. Multinational...

Out of India, A “Third Wave of Globalization” Emerges

Anand Giridharadas October 19, 2006
India has become a source of companies with cash, capable of major takeovers that shake up world industries. Tata – unknown throughout much of the Western world – could become such a global giant with its $10 million bid to purchase Cours Group, a British-Dutch steelmaker. The trend is the “third wave of globalization,” according to one analyst. The first wave was colonialism and the second was...

The Globalization Index

Paul Laudicina October 19, 2006
The impacts of globalization and roads to integration are almost as varied as the number of countries in the world. “Foreign Policy” and the A.T. Kearney consulting firm have released the sixth annual ranking of 62 countries based on their degree of globalization. The analysis focuses on categories of economic integration, personal contact, technological connectivity and political engagement....

Apple Finds No Forced Labor at iPod Factory in South China

John Markoff August 19, 2006
A team of investigators sent by Apple Computer to review practices at a factory in the Chinese city of Longhua found no evidence of child or forced labor. The group conducted 100 interviews with randomly selected workers, combed through thousands of documents and investigated the factory site run by Foxconn, a Taiwan-based company. The Apple report did, however, identify several violations of...