In The News

Is India Emerging as France of Asia?

Alyssa Ayres November 21, 2006
The current India visit by China’s President Hu Jintao to celebrate 50 years of relationship between the two countries will be watched closely by India’s newest friend, the United States. The two Asian giants have shaken off their frosty relations since their 1962 border war, and during the past five years their economic ties have blossomed. But the relationship between the US and India, shorn of...

The New Domino Theory

Robert B. Reich November 20, 2006
The recent visit to Vietnam by President Bush and the way American political parties are dealing with America’s old enemy are rich in irony. Four decades ago the US sent hundreds of thousands of troops and spent billions of dollars in Vietnam with the goal of preventing the country from falling like a domino in the Moscow-led Communist camp. But Soviet Communism collapsed and Vietnam adopted a...

¡Viva el Capitalismo!

Álvaro Vargas Llosa November 20, 2006
In 1986, the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to fund rebel fighters in Nicaragua. Twenty years later, Iran defies the US with its pursuit of nuclear weapons – and the Marxist candidate that Reagan opposed, Daniel Ortega, has won his country’s presidency. Ortega is not in the mold of a leftist politician like Hugo Chávez, and he won for two reasons, according...

Getting Beyond Donald Rumsfeld

Joseph S. Nye November 20, 2006
While most US citizens oppose the war in Iraq, just as many still favor the war on terror. Most US citizens are too impatient for the time-consuming process of soft power – as described by Harvard professor Joseph Nye, which changes attitudes with time, education and ideas. Policies of aggression and war only create new jihadists, Nye argues. The ideas spread by education, entrepreneurship or...

Beijing’s African Summit: Why China Is Wooing the Dark Continent

Eric S. Margolis November 17, 2006
China recently gave a grand welcome to 48 leaders from Africa and passed out $10 billion in aid. As a country that gets about one-third of its oil from Africa, China refuses to criticize human-rights violations that are common throughout the continent. In embracing diplomacy and resisting military action, China has built up an ample trade surplus and more than $1 trillion cash reserves. With such...

Managing Globalization: The Trouble with Water

Daniel Altman November 17, 2006
The United Nations Development Program issued a report this month highlighting the growing problem of access to water and sanitation in poor areas of the world. Water is becoming both costlier and more dangerous for those who can afford it least. The UN report made three proposals: first, that access to water is recognized as a human right. Second, that local governments be held accountable...

Parched in Australia: Drought Changes Views on Warming

Tim Johnston November 16, 2006
Australia has entered its fourth year of drought, and desperate farmers are selling livestock and worrying about a drop in land prices. A 10 percent increase in global wheat prices is another consequence of Australia’s drought. Extreme weather patterns have prompted Australian leaders to drop their skepticism about global warming and express some concerns. Like the US, Australia refused to sign...