In The News

Free Trade, Loss of Support Systems Crippling Food Production in Africa

February 18, 2010
Free trade and privatization, two hallmarks of development strategy in the last few decades, have not produced the intended benefits in developing countries. In fact, these policies increased poverty and decreased food production, exacerbating food shortages in the developing world like the one in 2008, according to a multi-university study. The problem is that free trade is not really free and...

Connecting Across Oceans

Nayan Chanda February 18, 2010
The global economic crisis inspired cries of globalization’s demise, but economic data from the past two years paints a more complex picture. Developed countries generally suffered through negative GDP growth, while developing countries largely stayed in positive territory. Trade collapsed, with shipping indices sinking to surprising lows, but has since recovered. And total international travel,...

Globalization in Trouble – Part II

David Dapice February 15, 2010
Globalization appears to have weathered the storm of the financial crisis, but it may be poised for a tumble. According to economist David Dapice, many developing nations, whose economies often depend heavily on exports, cannot sustain themselves without the willing consumption of their goods by the developed world. But with a pullback in aggregated demand among developed nations, the prognosis...

Globalization in Trouble – Part I

Bernard K. Gordon February 12, 2010
From financial woes to security worries, a new world seems to be dawning in which the process of globalization risks slowing down. In part one of a two part series, YaleGlobal looks at trade troubles that may arise from a non-trade failure. For all the praise of free and open trade creating prosperity in the post-World War II, analysts often forget how the stability of the international system...

Demonizing China: Pundits Get its Role in Africa Wrong

Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong February 10, 2010
China’s growing trade with, and investment in, Africa have been much decried of late. It exploits African resources, critics have charged, makes shady deals with despots and warlords, and leaves the population no better, perhaps worse, than the Europeans before. But according to professors Sautman and Yan, China’s role in Africa has been much maligned. Though China mainly imports oil and other...

Who Needs Whom More?

Philip Bowring February 5, 2010
Recent US arms sales to Taiwan met a sharp Chinese response that unnerved US business interests. So far, the Obama Administration has preferred accommodation to confrontation with Beijing. Business concerns, of course, fear any disruption to growth in China. But is what is good for business necessarily good for the US in the case of China? According to the author, the US should recognize that...

The US: A Worried Obama Should Worry The World

Edward Luce January 28, 2010
A year after his inauguration, US president Obama has already seen his star sink. Slipping in the opinion polls and with his Democratic party losing its supermajority in the Senate, Obama appears weaker and threatened. What he does next is likely to have a profound effect on the rest of the world. His recent State of the Union Address provided some insight on those subsequent actions, especially...