In The News

Washington’s New Friends in Latin America

Patricio Navia March 24, 2016
Barack Obama is taking steps to improve relations with neighbors as the first sitting US president to travel to Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. “Obama’s visit to Cuba and Argentina this week underlines the United States government’s effort to make new friends and rebuild old relationships in Latin America,” writes Patricio Navia for the Buenos Aires Herald, adding that “as the US did not...

A Flat World Gets Bumpy With Globalization in Retreat

David Dapice March 24, 2016
Uncertainty and instability threaten the global economy, and monetary stimulus by the central banks, including negative rates, is not delivering growth or confidence. So far, the United States is alone in breaking away from the pack to engage in monetary tightening and gradually lifting interest rates. China employs strict controls to prevent businesses and savers from sending cash outside the...

Free Trade Under Threat

Nayan Chanda February 29, 2016
Anxiety is spreading in the world’s wealthiest nations about unemployment, inequality and economic uncertainty due to outsourcing, global supply chains and big trade agreements. The wages of ordinary workers stagnate while corporate earnings soar. Sizable blocs of voters angrily resist trade agreements, immigration and protections for refugees. “The US presidential elections in November promise...

Opportunities, Not Oppression, to Stop Illegal Mining in the Peruvian Amazon

David J.X. Gonzalez February 18, 2016
Environmental degradation and human-rights abuses are often associated with small, illegal mining operations around the world. Peru, among the world's major gold producers, offers a case study on how local development could help solving a global problem. About 20 percent of Peru’s gold production comes from illegal and informal mines, and a crackdown on the small miners causes more problems...

Global Trade Conflict Looms Over China's Market Status

Guy de Jonquieres January 29, 2016
Trade tensions rise as China, the United States and the European Union quarrel how far each can go with anti-dumping measures to prevent exports at low prices to control markets, reports Guy de Jonquieres for Nikkei Asian Review. “Anti-dumping laws, which are employed by many countries, including China, are a glaring exception from world trade rules that prohibit governments from unilaterally...

Al Jazeera America Will Shut Down Its Cable TV Network in April

Stephen Battaglio January 14, 2016
Al Jazeera America, launched in August 2013, will shut down in April. The channel, with a parent company owned by the Qatar government, was “squeezed by declining oil prices, a fiercely competitive TV landscape and a brand that American viewers never embraced,” writes Stephen Battaglio for the Los Angeles Times. He adds the channel “sought to distinguish itself by emphasizing a more serious...

Faulty Mission?

Nayan Chanda January 12, 2016
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched “Make in India” to create jobs and attract foreign investment, but the campaign “remains mired in political battles and cultural battles,” explains Nayan Chanda, founding editor of YaleGlobal Online who also consults for the publication. “India’s hope to take up the slack from China’s … increasingly expensive labour force may have come too late.” The...