In The News

Counting Sheep?

Seema Sirohi January 28, 2005
Christian missionaries are no strangers to the lands surrounding the Indian Ocean. Europeans traveled to the region throughout the 19th century in an effort to spread their belief in the "one true God." Even today, missionaries work tirelessly in South and Southeast Asia to draw converts from local Hindu and Muslim populations. Yet their zeal has irked the ire of many in the region...

Poverty Breeds Insecurity

January 19, 2005
At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, world leaders placed development at the heart of the global agenda by adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 2015. To devise a plan for implementation and recommend strategies for developing...

China's African Safari

Paul Mooney January 3, 2005
Since the 1960s, China has been rather consistent in offering assistance to African countries in agriculture, heavy industries, and infrastructure development. In recent years, Sino-African trade has enjoyed particularly rapid growth. As Paul Mooney reports, many African leaders, regarding China as a reliable friend who has suffered the similar imperialist aggression by Western powers, welcome...

Africa's Hungry Are Fed Bad Policies

Paul Kwengwere December 30, 2004
Amidst plagues of war and disease, hunger remains one of Sub-Saharan Africa's most devastating afflictions. Developed countries have responded with aid, relief efforts, and policy interventions to help the region's struggling farmers. But, as Paul Kwengwere writes, behind the gratitude for this assistance looms a debate regarding the long-term value of the terms involved. IMF loan...

A Thaw in South Asia? – Part II

Huma Fakhar December 27, 2004
Improved relations between South Asia's two most prominent states, India and Pakistan, are crucial to the region's ascending global profile, write Huma Fakhar and Jean-Pierre Lehmann. Encouraging diplomatic developments have diluted some of the hostile sentiments of shared by the two countries, which were once on a path to nuclear war. If intra-regional trade would heat up, as well,...

From Free Market to "Our Power"

Liam Salter December 13, 2004
Though enshrined in the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, clean sustainable energy looks a long way off in much of Asia. Demand for coal in India and China has risen exponentially in recent years, fuelling fears of an imminent pollution crisis. Efforts to steer Asia away from the "hard energy path" – reliance on traditional energy sources – have met with only gradual...

Latin America's family remittances -- heading south?

Andres Oppenheimer December 10, 2004
Every year, more than $30 billion in family remittances flows from the United States to Latin America. This money encourages economic growth, and many countries actually get more in remittances than from foreign investment. In addition, this money goes to those who need it most, helping to lift people out of poverty. However, a recent Columbia University study warns these countries against...