In The News

The Great Reverse – Part III

Anna Greenspan September 8, 2004
While headlines in the West bemoan job outsourcing to China and India, they ignore a far more profound economic shift: the growth of business partnerships between these two rising economies. In the final installment of our three-part series, "The Great Reverse," globalization scholar Anna Greenspan writes that leaders and entrepreneurs in both Asian countries are bridging political...

Too Much Consensus

September 2, 2004
Deciphering world policy jargon is often a daunting task. Fortunately, Foreign Policy magazine clarifies a few key ideas in its "Field Guide to the Consensuses." After the 1990 Washington Consensus, John Williamson's expression of support for market theory, the world has witnessed the births of a few other "consensual" ideas. The Beijing Consensus, antithetical to its...

Certified Globalization

Tim Bartley August 26, 2004
In recent years, certification – private regulation of corporate labor and environmental practices – has developed through complex interactions with and reactions to governments, NGOs, and corporations. Indiana University sociologist Tim Bartley traces this history and outlines the controversy surrounding the adoption of these standards. While critics view certification as thinly veiled...

Louder than Words

Matthew Tempest August 5, 2004
Mark Curtis, head of the London-based World Development Movement (WDM) objects to Britain’s making economic liberalization a pre-condition to receiving aid monies. He argues that the US, the UK, and even the Asian Tigers achieved economic ascendancy through protection of infant industries, not open markets. To ask developing countries to liberalize their economies or get no aid is unfair....

Experts Call for Stronger Guidance to Foreign Investment

August 3, 2004
Foreign capital continues to flow into China, but its distribution remains unequal, with the majority of investment going to China’s eastern areas while a mere trickle makes its way to central and western areas. Consequently, the economy of eastern China is characterized by a higher number of foreign-funded enterprises and higher numbers of workers employed by foreign-funded enterprises. The...

Real Trade Negotiations Still Lie Ahead

Guy de Jonquières August 1, 2004
The Doha round of trade negotiations started in November 2001 and was scheduled to be wrapping up later this year, but a walkout of representatives from developing nations at the WTO’s Cancun meeting last September delayed the process. Many experts feared that another setback would severely damage prospects of future negotiations, but this weekend a deal was reached that marks the end of talks...

Garment Industry Faces a Global Shake-Up

Guy de Jonquières July 19, 2004
At the end of the year, the global economy will face restructuring in its textile sector as the Multifiber Agreement is abolished. Formalized in 1974, the Multifiber Agreement established a system of production quotes originally designed to safeguard jobs in developed nations from being shipped overseas. The principal aim of the agreement was achieved, but at a cost of 35 lost jobs in the...