In The News

The $40-a-Barrel Mistake

Edward L. Morse May 25, 2004
The ever-swelling prices for crude oil worldwide have many consumers and governments concerned. The authors of this article – a former US energy official and an oil adviser to Saudi Arabia – attribute the problems to ineffective policies pursued by the United States and Saudi Arabia over the past year. According to them, the initial catalyst for these policy decisions was the 2003-2003 Venezuelan...

Russia Backs Kyoto to Get on Path to Join WTO

Peter Baker May 22, 2004
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russia would support the Kyoto protocol on limitation of emission of green house gases into the atmosphere marks an important step. The Kyoto Protocol received a big blow when the Bush administration refused to support it. Given that there was a strong campaign by some elements in Russia against supporting the protocol the future of Kyoto...

WTO Hands a Critical Victory to African Farmers

Gayle E. Smith, Susan E. Rice May 21, 2004
Last September's WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun failed to produce a substantive trade agreement after a group of developing countries banded together to demand the EU and the US discontinue their multi-billion dollar subsidy programs. When the EU and US resisted, the talks fell apart. But the latest ruling by the WTO against US cotton subsidies may help push through the Cancun...

Burma: Feel-Good US Sanctions Wrongheaded

David I. Steinberg May 19, 2004
President Bush's recent decision to extend sanctions against Burma for another year is emotionally satisfying but ineffective as a means of promoting democracy in the military-ruled state, argues David I. Steinberg, Director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Although US allies like India or Southeast Asian nations share its concern about the junta...

On China's Rise

Ernesto Zedillo May 18, 2004
Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and former president of Mexico, recently visited China, where he attended a regionally important Asian economic conference. In this column in Forbes Magazine, he pens his impressions of China's economic development, gathered from public and private meetings with Chinese government officials during his trip. Zedillo...

Globalisation in African continent

Syed Jamaluddin May 18, 2004
A host of factors, including the continent-wide financial, industrial, and political difficulties since the end of the colonial age have reduced economic performance in Africa to often pitiable levels. Despite starting “from behind” and the current obstacles to economic growth, this editorial highlights progress Africa has made, and the future development that can be speeded up by proper...

Biotech Crops Could Help Poor Farmers, U.N. Says

Justin Gillis May 17, 2004
The debates over biotechnology have centered on the environmental, health, and global equality issues implicit in any major agricultural technology change. Some charge that genetically modified food crops are detrimental to environment, biodiversity, long-term health, and benefit rich nations at the expense of poor. The other side – which now seems to be joined by the Food and Agricultural...