In The News

Geoffrey A. Fowler March 22, 2006
With American auto-insurance, credit cards, and medical x-rays, not to mention software development and IT needs, already managed by trained professionals in India, it was only a matter of time until Indian enterprise asserted itself on the culture of global consumerism. An article in The Wall Street Journal details the outsourcing potential India holds for ad and marketing agencies. Boasting a...
Dave Young March 8, 2006
Current debates on China focus on its growing economic strength as a threat to the West. But China, moving from a rural to an urban economy, can also offer opportunity for the West. Over the next five years China will build more than 300 new cities, requiring expertise on infrastructure, financing and environmental protection. With China’s growing influence, the author says, world financial...
March 3, 2006
Conflict over the Danish cartoon crisis is a result of tension between the process of globalization and the pull of “nativism.” Globalization involves both the movement of people, goods, capital and ideas around the world, and the impact of the changes wrought by this flow. The effects of such exchanges are more immediate because of real-time communications through cell phones and the internet...
Eric Sylvers February 20, 2006
Cell phone company executives boast about how their services and economic development improve the quality of life in poor countries. However, delivering cellular technology to the developing world is a business proposition as well as a humanitarian one. The world has plenty of untapped markets – Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America – and no two are alike. Two-thirds of the world’s...
Catherine L. Mann February 17, 2006
Frequent news articles detail the offshoring of information technology (IT) jobs, sounding alarms for all US workers. Catherine Mann suggests that such alarm may be unwarranted and points out steps to maximize the benefits of globalization. Research indicates that the globalization of IT actually promotes productivity, creates new jobs, reduces inflation and enhances innovation, both in the US...
Joseph Kahn February 15, 2006
Free-speech advocates continue to reproach the world’s technology and media giants for ready cooperation with the Chinese government’s moves to censor the internet. Yahoo offered up information about users’ email accounts that led to the convictions of so-called dissidents in 2003 and 2005. Microsoft pulled the plug on a major blog that drew the ire of Chinese censors. Cisco sold equipment...
Geoffrey A. Fowler February 14, 2006
The Chinese government tries to maintain strict control over citizens’ access to the internet, but computer-savvy free-speech activists abroad are making that job more difficult. Among those activists is Bill Xia, a North Carolinian who distributes a program called “Freegate” that allows Chinese web surfers to circumvent their government’s online censorship. Designed by a Chinese-American,...