In The News

Globalization and the Political Future of Nigeria

Sam Ejike Okoye October 15, 2004
Although some may doubt the impact of globalization on the African continent, the recent surge of world oil prices to their highest recorded levels, triggered by the threat of strike in Nigeria may dispel the myth. If levels remain above US$50 per barrel through the coming winter, a worldwide recession is not out of the question, the article says. Today's economic, scientific, environmental...

Where Have All the Protesters Gone?

James H. Mittelman October 4, 2004
The prevalent discourse on globalization seems to feature two sides pitted irrevocably against each other: supporters – corporate proponents of hi-tech, free-market promises – and the opposition – gangs of dreadlocked youth engaged in rowdy demonstrations. Yet this polarization of "boardroom versus protesters" is a caricature of a more complicated reality. Globalization scholar James...

Making Globalization Work for All

Jeffrey D. Sachs October 2, 2004
When world leaders met at the UN’s Millennium Assembly four years ago, they laid out ambitious proposals to alleviate global poverty, hunger, disease, and illiteracy. Yet in spite of a rhetorical commitment to development, says economist Jeffrey Sachs, rich nations like the US have been unwilling to commit the necessary aid. Much of the developing world is experiencing rising poverty and needs...

The Price of Free Trade - Part II

Tom Fawthrop October 1, 2004
Instituted some 30 years ago, the international Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) set export quotas on all textile manufacturing nations. Some poorer countries, like Bangladesh and Cambodia, received larger quotas, which enabled them to attract foreign investment and sharply boost their earnings. Artificially protected from competition, they built their developing economies around the textiles...

The Price of Free Trade - Part I

Mustafizur Rahman September 29, 2004
Instituted some 30 years ago, the international Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) set export quotas on all textile manufacturing nations. Some poorer countries, like Bangladesh and Cambodia, received larger quotas, which enabled them to attract foreign investment and sharply boost their earnings. Artificially protected from competition, they built their developing economies around the textiles...

Uncertain Future for Free Trade

Ernesto Zedillo September 15, 2004
WTO members in Geneva recently ratified the Doha Development Agenda July 2004 Package, a group of measures designed to carry out the goals of the 2001 Doha Round. Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and former president of Mexico, suggests that despite laudatory talk from the key negotiators, the recent Geneva agreement contributes little toward advancing...

Is Equity in Trade an Attainable Goal?

Susan Ariel Aaronson September 15, 2004
As developing countries struggle to survive in the competitive global market, many wonder if the current system is inherently biased against them. Groups like Oxfam International, a prominent development organization, aim to remedy what they regard as structural failures in the world economy by reforming trade relations among nations. Globalization scholar Susan Ariel Aaronson suggests that...