In The News

A Wary US Remains Open to Chinese Investments

Ziad Haider February 6, 2014
China with its fast-growing economy is on the hunt for global investments. The United States reviews most investments for national security implications with its Committee on Foreign Investment, chaired by the Department of Treasury, and Ziad Haider, attorney and writer, argues Chinese companies fare better than most would assume: “The volume and sophistication of Chinese firms looking to enter...

Reid Deals Body Blow to Obama on Trade

William Mauldin, Siobhan Hughes January 31, 2014
US President Barack Obama and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid share party affiliation as Democrats and are typically strong allies. But Reid has announced opposition to legislation that would provide fast-track approvals of major trade deals and prevent nitpicky amendments in Congress. “The move spells trouble for two sets of complicated talks” – namely the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the...

China’s Rise Leads India and Japan to Wary Embrace

Harsh V. Pant January 30, 2014
Japan and India are forging closer ties, in part because of shared interests as Asian democracies but also to counter China’s assertive rise and prepare for a decline in US security spending. Harsh V. Pant of King’s College points out that “changing geopolitical realities are now forcing Delhi to acknowledge significant convergence between its own regional interests and that of longstanding US...

Growth and Globalization Cannot Cure All the World’s Ills

Gideon Rachman January 30, 2014
Global leaders and elites, such as those who gathered for the World Economic Forum in Davos, regard economic growth via globalization as the prescription for difficulty or political conflict, suggests Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times. But economic growth, globalization and capitalism do not necessarily curtail inequality, instability, environmental degradation, nationalist rivalries, jihad...

“Snowden Effect” Threatens US Tech Industry's Global Ambitions

Gerry Smith January 28, 2014
Claims by a former US National Security Agency contract worker that multinational companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft cooperate in handing over user data has reduced global trust in the US tech industry. Equally alarming are Edward Snowden’s claims that the US engages in industrial espionage. “The impact of the Snowden leaks could threaten the future architecture of the modern Internet...

China Exports Pollution to US, Study Finds

Edward Wongjan January 27, 2014
Pollution knows no borders. A study by nine researchers in three nations quantifies “how air pollution in the United States is affected by China’s production of goods for export and by global consumer demand for those goods,” reports Edward Wongjan for the New York Times: “The scientists wrote that ‘outsourcing production to China does not always relieve consumers in the United States – or for...

The Shape of Things to Come

Gideon Rose, Jonathan Tepperman January 27, 2014
Investors recognize that a security, business or weather event in one part of the world can quickly influence attitudes and economic activities thousands of miles away. Elite and small investors, even if only through mutual funds, pursue new opportunities around the globe, and closely follow the emerging economies and their relationships with the largest economies, including the United States and...