In The News

The Economist: Can Political Islam Make It in the Modern World?

September 21, 2017
In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Islamist parties across the Middle East and North Africa have achieved mixed results. As the Economist notes, the legacy of the Muslim Brotherhood, which began as an anti-imperialist social and educational movement in Egypt under Hassan al-Banna in 1928, gave way to Islamist offshoots, each iteration borne out of its own historical particularities and social...

The Economist: Kenya’s New Government Faces Serious Challenges

August 30, 2017
Kenya’s recent presidential elections have come under scrutiny with candidate Raila Odinga calling the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta’s reelection a “computer-generated fraud.” In Nairobi and in Western Kenya, protestors have “blocked roads and burned tires,” reports the Economist. “The police responded [by] firing tear gas and live rounds into the crowds. After a few days, at least two dozen...

Foreign Affairs: Race in the Modern World: The Problem of the Colorline

Kwame Anthony Appiah August 22, 2017
At the first Pan-African Congress in London in 1900, black American intellectual and activist W.E.B. Du Bois affirmed that the “problem of the twentieth century” was “the color-line, the question as to how far differences of race … will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization...

The Telegraph: Indian Independence Day

Barney Henderson August 16, 2017
This August marks 70 years since the Great Partition divided British India into two independent nations: India and Pakistan. The Indian independence movement engaged in non-violent struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and diplomacy efforts in international forums in the wake of the Second World War, just as the old British and French empires were on the verge of collapse. As Barney...

BBC News: What Lies Ahead for Divided Venezuela?

Will Grant July 31, 2017
Venezuela is in crisis even though it has the largest proved oil reserves in the world. The country depends heavily on oil revenues and mismanaged the industry. President Nicolás Maduro, in office since 2013, lacks control and credibility. Election results of assembly members charged with changing the constitution are suspect: The government claims that more than 40 percent of the electorate...

Project Syndicate: Trump’s Sugar Swamp

Jeffrey Frankel June 29, 2017
In a prelude to renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement that US President Trump promised on the campaign trail, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross recently concluded a deal with Mexico over sugar production. The sugar industry, however, still wants stricter protections from imported Mexican sugar when negotiations begin. In Project Syndicate, Jeffrey Frankel argues that the...

Washington Examiner: Good Globalization and Bad Globalization

Dan Hannan June 12, 2017
Globalization delivers both comfort and pain – represented by a delicious cup of coffee anytime or anywhere in the world or job losses and shuttered factories due to foreign competition. Dan Hannan, capturing themes covered by YaleGlobal Online since 2002, describes how globalization has become a divisive election issue in many countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and...