In The News

Globalization’s Second Death?

Niall Ferguson April 13, 2006
Globalization is in trouble when the US adopts a protectionist stance, argues Niall Ferguson. Extreme proposals, such as building an enormous fence along the US-Mexican border, reveal an isolationist attitude that could extend beyond the immigration issue. Politicians scrutinize the movement of labor, capital and goods in a way that calls to mind what Ferguson labels the “death of globalization”...

NATO Role in Darfur on Table

Bradley Graham April 13, 2006
The Bush administration has proposed sending several hundred North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) advisors to the Darfur region of Sudan. The advisors would aid African Union troops in protecting civilians in Darfur from the ongoing clash of government-supported Arab militias and rebel fighters. This stage of conflict in Darfur originated in 2003 when rebels initiated combat with the Arab-...

Don't Give Up on WTO, Fix It

Richard G. Lipsey April 4, 2006
Contrary to what its most adamant critics maintain, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a primary defense for poor and oppressed nations against exploitation from powerful nations and companies. Economist Richard G. Lipsey traces how the international institution that regulates trade emerged from policies facilitating globalization during the latter half of the 20th century. The WTO does not...

Managing Globalization: Costs of Exporting Labor

Daniel Altman April 3, 2006
Filipino workers can be found all over the globe. By some estimates, about 25 percent of the Philippines’ workforce can be found overseas, and wages returned home accounted for 12 percent of the GNP in 2005. Those wages are spent on new homes, education, and consumer goods. Yet some analysts warn that the country’s social system revolves around overseas work, requiring long family separations and...

For People and Planet

Al Gore April 3, 2006
Current business practices take little account of environmental costs, and such neglect will impose huge costs and decreased standards of living for future generations. Too many businesses, investors and consumers continue to act as though natural resources – oil, minerals, clean water – are unlimited. Sustainable development could be the driving force of industrial and economic change over the...

Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World’s Poor?

Pranab Bardhan March 31, 2006
As debates over economic globalization rage, one writer ponders whether “expansion of foreign trade and investment” influences the world’s poor. Author Pranab Bardhan notes that the answer is neither a simple yes or no. By certain measures, the level of extreme poverty has lessened worldwide, but that doesn’t necessarily correlate with globalization and could be the result of some domestic...

Latin Blues

Ernesto Zedillo March 27, 2006
Some analysts anticipate that successful populist campaigns, with irresponsible campaign promises and unrealistic goals, could plunge Latin America into economic disaster and thus reverse democratic gains from the past 20 years. Yet former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, now director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, notes that every Latin American politician recognizes the...