In The News

Europe's Lesson, from Brussels to Baghdad

Wolfgang Schauble January 13, 2004
Europe's crisis over the ideal constitution for the EU stems from fundamental differences between contending countries, says Bundestag official Wolfgang Schauble. France and Germany's belief in the right of majority rule is their justification for insisting on having their way on certain key economic and political decisions. With large populations, they expect greater clout. Poland,...

At Conference, Fox Backs Bush's Guest-Worker Plan

Elisabeth Bumiller January 13, 2004
At a 34-country meeting in Mexico, achieving agreement on a free-trade zone of the Americas seems unlikely, says this article in the New York Times. Washington's hope to achieve a Tree Trade Agreement of the Americas by 2005 faces multiple hurdles. The presidents of Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina are wary of an American-led free trade zone, arguing that their countries' prior...

Why Not Let Them Work?

Mechthild Küpper January 9, 2004
Germany's one million illegal immigrants are hard to typify, says this article in the F.A.Z. Weekly. Unlike the Turkish immigrants who are in the country legally but have not acculturated themselves to Germany, the author writes, many illegal immigrants are integrating well by learning German and seeking steady work. Workers from Poland and Eastern Europe, many of whom enter on tourist or...

Bush's Proposal for Immigration Reform Misses the Point

Andres Oppenheimer January 8, 2004
A day after US President George W. Bush announced proposed changes to US immigration policy, some are saying the changes do not go deep enough. If it meets with approval from the US Congress, Bush's proposal would grant identity cards to millions of illegal workers and allow them to continue to work legally for three years. The plans were announced just one week before Bush meets with the...

How to Reduce Poverty: Lessons from China

David Dollar January 6, 2004
Conventional economic wisdom holds that foreign investment and trade boost economic growth and help alleviate poverty in developing countries. So why is it that some countries that seem quite open to the outside world are stagnating economically? David Dollar, Director of Development Policy at the World Bank, writes that a comparison of economic conditions in several Chinese cities points to...

10,000 Animals to Be Culled as SARS Returns to China

Jonathan Watts January 6, 2004
After a six-month absence, SARS has re-appeared in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, with a 32-year old man confirmed to be infected with a new strain of the virus. Provincial officials have declared a "patriotic" extermination of civet cats - the animal from which the virus is believed to have passed to humans - and variety of vermin. The World Health Organization, however...

The Likely Surprises of 2004

Moises Naim December 29, 2003
The Iraq war may have dominated headlines, but it was not the only significant geopolitical event of 2003. Moises Naim, the editor of Foreign Policy Magazine, reminds us that while moving forward in 2004 we cannot overlook the fundamental changes that occurred in 2003 within the European Union, the global trading system, the American and Chinese economies, and Russia. As a new year begins, the...