In The News

The Trouble With India

March 14, 2007
When investors tout growth, two images can come to mind: One includes bustling industries and fabulous wealth; the other is unorganized communities, as irritated crowds of people compete for limited resources. This article in “BusinessWeek” explores how India’s infrastructure – highways, airports, clean water and other utilities – fails to keep pace with the explosive growth of the high-tech...

Child Labor: The Cause Can Also be a Cure

Susan Ariel Aaronson March 13, 2007
Pressure of globalization has led to child trafficking and forced labor. Similar global pressure from public opinion can also put an end to the practice. Five years ago, reports emerged about small groups of children being trafficked and forced to pick cacao beans – the main ingredient for chocolate – in West African plantations. Outraged US officials, industry groups and activists organized the...

The Opening of Libya

Stanley Reed March 9, 2007
As Libya gradually emerges from 20 years of economic isolation, international energy firms rush to grab a piece of the North African nation’s extensive untapped oil reserves. Libya has organized an intensely competitive bidding process for exploration rights, pitting companies from the US, Europe and Asia against one another in a race to secure new sources of energy. Such investment will have...

Iran-Saudi Arabian Embrace: A New Beginning?

Dilip Hiro March 9, 2007
The US, struggling to control violence in Iraq, has ratcheted up its threat against neighboring Iran as a primary culprit. Longstanding US concerns about Iran defying the international community by developing nuclear weapons have recently been heightened by its accusation that the Islamic state has been supporting Shiite militias against Sunnis in Iraq’s ongoing civil war. Conservative US...

Spotlight: Selling Globalization to France

Katrin Bennhold March 9, 2007
The French trade minister has taken on two challenging tasks: convincing firms that France is a great place to do business and convincing citizens that globalization is good for them. Globalization for the French has become synonymous with outsourcing jobs, reports this article in “The International Herald Tribune.” France has a reputation for protectionism, admits trade minister Christine...

Dead Russian Newsman Was Probing Arms Sales to Syria and Iran

Vladimir Isachenkov March 8, 2007
Another Russian journalist has died under suspicious circumstances while investigating a story damaging to Russia’s ruling elites. Ivan Safronov, a former defense official working for the newspaper Kommersant, died in a fall before he could report on possible Russian arms deals with Syria and Iran. Such deals would be a significant boost to those two nations’ air-defense and precision-strike...

Managing Globalization: How Fast China Grows Will Affect Everyone

Daniel Altman March 8, 2007
Since the end of its civil war, China has achieved staggeringly high rates of growth. Except during crisis periods like the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the Chinese economy has increased its size by between 8 and 10 percent a year. Today’s economists are divided over the question of whether China’s extraordinary growth will continue. Some, like James Trippon of “The China Stock...