In The News

Managing Globalization: The Global Quest for a Second Passport

Daniel Altman February 7, 2007
With citizenship comes certain rights – and some workers try to accumulate more rights be acquiring citizenship in more nations. Nations tinker with citizenship laws to attract talent, and individuals examine citizenship laws to broaden a job search. For example, people with grandparents of European heritage, would-be soldiers willing to fight for the US in Iraq and pregnant women who travel to...

Obama's International Background an Asset, Not a Flaw

Donald K. Emmerson February 5, 2007
Global exchange of all sorts is a prerequisite for the future, and parents should prepare their children. An international education – attending public school with ordinary children, not cloistered away with children of the elite – can be the best preparation for a global career and an antidote for racism, xenophobia or other forms of social tension. Isolationists in the US try to stoke fear of...

Questioning Milton Friedman’s Free Market and Freedom

Pranab Bardhan January 30, 2007
Not only democracies but dictators and authoritarian governments pursue the benefits of economic freedom. The recent passing of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman provokes economist Pranab Bardhan to reflect on the connections that these two individuals represented: political control and economic freedom. Friedman and other economists have long...

Different Paths of Asian Giants

Ramkishen S. Rajan January 29, 2007
The rapid emergence of China and India dramatically transformed the global economy during the last decade. But the two countries have pursued contrasting strategies: China’s industrialization has been fueled by public-sector investments and large-scale foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing; India’s has been driven largely by domestic companies and entrepreneurs. More recently, however...

Oscar Embraces Globalization and Diversity This Year

Steven Rea January 29, 2007
Though it may not win Best Picture, the film most emblematic of the Academy Awards in March will be “Babel,” which examines the modern tension between instant communications and persistent language barriers. This year, films like “Babel,” with six languages, and “Letters from Iwo Jima,” mostly in Japanese, are honored in the Best Picture category, rather than confined to Foreign Film nominations...

Asian Games: New Gold Standard in Measuring National Will

Sadanand Dhume January 25, 2007
Sport is an age-old metaphor for politics – and Asian affairs analyst Sadanand Dhume looks at the Asian Games in the light of the region's traditional rivalries. China captured more medals than any other nation, almost three times as many gold medals as runner-up South Korea. China’s geopolitical rival India was ranked eighth, with most of its medals won in more intricate, intellectual games...

Russian Court Backs Closing of Chechen Rights Group

Peter Finn January 25, 2007
Authorities sometimes regard activism as extremism, especially when groups criticize government policy. Russian authorities put a stop to the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, after the group reprinted statements by Chechen separatists, linked to the mass school killing in 2004. The group is funded by organizations based in the West, and Russia has passed laws prohibiting anyone convicted of...