In The News

NSA Spying: A Threat to US Interests?

Bruce Stokes December 5, 2013
Reports that the US National Security Agency has collected internet and telephone data in Europe could influence negotiations for a proposed Transatlantic Trade and Partnership and require new understanding on rules for the digital economy. Bruce Stokes, director of global economic attitudes at the Pew Research Center, reports on recent surveys: A majority of Americans suggest that it’s...

Putin's Russia: Too Weak to Stop Ukraine Joining Europe, But Will Try

Charles Crawford December 2, 2013
Ukraine finds itself in the middle of an old cultural battleground between Russia and Europe, explains Charles Crawford for the Telegraph. “Ukraine had no independent existence as a state until the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991,” he explains. “In 2004 the ‘Orange Revolution’ saw the first big Ukrainian convulsion over this question after huge popular protests against clumsily rigged...

Merkel Says Spy Scandal Is Testing EU-US Trade Talks

Stefan Wagstyl November 27, 2013
Relations with the US and a proposed transatlantic free trade agreement are “being put to the test” amid reports of US National Security Agency surveillance, suggests German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Berlin is pressing the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to incorporate data safeguards into the negotiations for the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, launched this...

Bridge to Somewhere

Jose W. Fernandez November 20, 2013
The US now aims to apply aid for international development in strategic ways. As the global middle class expands, most growth takes place in Brazil, China, India, North Africa and other emerging economies, with 85 percent of growth anticipated in the Asia Pacific region alone, reports Jose Fernandez for Foreign Affairs. He anticipates countries to become more competitive on expanding “ports,...

Paying the China Price

Nayan Chanda November 15, 2013
Manufacturing that adapts to new technologies and conditions shapes societies and economies. The challenge for India and other countries is competing with China’s low costs. Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal’s editor in his column for Businessworld, describes how business people place manufacturing orders with China and then reap the profits by re-selling readymade goods or assembling components with big...

African Art on the Move

Susan Froetschel November 7, 2013
Visitors to Africa have long been intrigued by the continent's art, eager to introduce the work to global markets. Stone sculpture was revived in Zimbabwe, the former British colony known as Southern Rhodesia, in the 1960s after a British art adviser, Frank McEwen, became director of the national museum. He hosted workshops for museum staff and visitors and relied on his network to display...

Abe Team Seeks to Kill Rice Subsidy Program by 2018

Reiji Yoshida November 7, 2013
Despite recent a decline in domestic consumption of rice, Japan ranks eight among rice-consuming countries, but does not figure among the top 10 producing nations, according to the International Rice Research Institute. To increase competition and reduce prices, the Abe administration plans to end government regulations and subsidies by 2018 for farmers who limit paddy usage. “To placate...