In The News

UK Gives Unprecedented Support to £16 Billion Nuclear Deal

Geert De Clercq, Karolin Schaps October 23, 2013
Britain signed a deal with French firm EDF and Chinese partners to build a nuclear plant, with government guarantees – going against the grain for energy privatization in Europe. It’s the first nuclear plant for Europe since the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, where leakages and cleanup continue. If approved, the plant could go online in 2023. Reuters reports: “The government will guarantee it...

The Gated Globe

Greg Ip October 17, 2013
After the 2008 global economic crisis, leaders vowed to avoid protectionism, but they also took steps to avoid globalization’s negatives. “After two decades in which people, capital and goods were moving ever more freely across borders, walls have been going up, albeit ones with gates,” writes Greg Ip in a series for the Economist. “Governments increasingly pick and choose whom they trade with,...

To Shut Down Washington, Republicans Must Ask China's Permission First

Eamonn Fingleton October 2, 2013
China could step in to influence the latest political squabble in the United States by slowing down its purchases of US Treasury debt. A small group of conservative Republicans in US Congress want to slash spending and forced a shutdown of many government operations, while demanding a delay in a health care law, even though that has already slowed rising US health costs. Overseas creditors don’t...

Myanmar, North Korea Stay Brothers in Arms

Bertil Lintner September 24, 2013
While the US has restored relations with Myanmar, ongoing improvement hinges on the latter severing ties with North Korea. The US publicly emphasizes democracy and human rights for the nation once known as Burma, suggests journalist Bertil Lintner in Asia Times, yet “Myanmar has emerged as the frontline of the Obama administration's 'pivot' towards Asia, or, in plain language, the...

Did Brazil's President Just Knock Down US Influence a Notch or Two?

James Norton September 18, 2013
Leaked data about secret US National Security Agency surveillance of foreign countries have claimed another casualty. Upset over alleged NSA spying of Brazilian government and institutions, President Dilma Rousseff has put off a late October visit to the United States, where she was to be honored with a state dinner. James Norton writes for the Christian Science Monitor that Rousseff describes...

The Politics of Palm Oil

Pavin Chachavalpongpun September 17, 2013
Palm oil is Indonesia’s most valuable agricultural export and the industry employs nearly 2 million people. Indonesia has laws prohibiting the slash-and-burn method of clearing fields for large plantations, explains Pavin Chachavalpongpun, of Kyoto University’s Centre for Southeast Asian Studies. Yet allowances for small farmers and a regional culture of patronage politics may hamper enforcement...

Botanical Bandits: Rampant Poaching Threatens Ginseng’s Survival

Jake Frankel September 9, 2013
The delicate plant with tiny red berries has drawn thousands of scavengers to Appalachia forests, digging up roots of the ginseng plant, wiping out entire groves, for sale to Asian markets. “[W]ith wild ginseng root fetching upward of $800 a pound, untold numbers of poachers have taken to local forests, overwhelming meager law enforcement resources and leaving the plant’s survival in doubt,”...