In The News

Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005

April 18, 2005
The OpenNet Initiative, a partnership between three universities, recently tested China's Internet filtering of web content and e-mail. China employs the most technologically sophisticated filtering regime, and unlike other countries, filtering is carried out at various control points and changes over time. The project found widespread efforts to prevent access to a wide range of subjects...

China-India Entente Shifts Global Balance

Clyde Prestowitz April 15, 2005
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's recent diplomatic visit to India resulted in a number of potentially historic agreements. Economist Clyde Prestowitz suggests that collaboration between the two Asian nations may reshape globalization in the 21st century. The European age of exploration set into motion a first wave of globalization – setting the stage for centuries of Western economic,...

This Is the Sound of Globalization

Jon Pareles April 15, 2005
While nation-states maintain tariffs and strictly control immigration, music needs no passport. Artists are increasingly mixing local, traditional forms with those borrowed from other parts of the world. The New York Times compiled a list of musical fusions from every corner of the globe. Thanks to the digital production and distribution – and of course, the internet – eager listeners may access...

Brazil: Free Software's Biggest and Best Friend

Todd Benson March 29, 2005
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has surprised many of his conservative critics by adopting some of the free-market policies that he once opposed. But foreign business leaders – especially those at Microsoft – have been less pleased with da Silva's support for free software. Under the President's orders, all government agencies must gradually shift from Microsoft's...

Chinese Cell Phone Breaches North Korean Hermit Kingdom

Rebecca MacKinnon January 17, 2005
International interest in Northeast Asian affairs has focused primarily on the stalemate between Pyongyang and Washington. Across North Korea's northern and southern borders, however, business and technology - particularly in the telecommunications industry - are booming. With Chinese telecom companies setting up relay stations near the border, an increasing number of North Koreans may now...

Galileo, Fusion Energy Propel India, EU "Strategic Partnership"

Siddharth Varadarajan November 9, 2004
In talks that were finalized on Monday, India and the European Union (EU) agreed to work together on the Galileo satellite global positioning system and on long-term fusion energy research. India has been careful to state that it will invest capital in proportion to the benefits that it receives from these projects, but the decision to collaborate is not simply a good money investment. By...

Globalization and Anti-Americanism

Joseph S. Nye October 21, 2004
As nations feel culturally threatened by globalization, anti-Americanism grows. Yet it is modernization - not Americanization - that is changing cultures, argues former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph Nye. Cultures are not stagnant, and the adaptation of Japan demonstrates that countries can modernize while remaining unique. Although t-shirt logos and soft drink brands may grow more...