In The News

Perceptions and Realities of Globalization

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard May 30, 2008
Globalization is a non-stop economic process. Individuals, companies or governments are always on the lookout for new processes or innovations – and so the economic and power structure of the world is never stagnant. The West made a mistake in assuming that the flow of technology and know-how moves only one way, from developed to developing nations. As a result, voters in the West are puzzled and...

Spirit of the Wombles

Libby Brooks May 20, 2008
The anti-globalization movement captured world attention in the 1990s. But media coverage quickly shifted to terrorist attacks, wars, climate change and other problems, writes Libby Brooks for the Guardian. “Even if 9/11 hadn't happened, it's doubtful whether the anti-globalisation movement could have been sustained,” writes Brooks. “Its membership was too disparate, its aims too vague...

Superclass and the Inequity of Globalization

David Rothkopf May 14, 2008
The free-market principles that drive global trade of goods, services and ideas often run counter to notions of institutional regulation. According to David Rothkopf, author and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this void in global governance has facilitated the rise of a “superclass” of elites, numbering about 6,000, whose actions impact millions of lives. The...

The Cognitive Age

David Brooks May 5, 2008
Some politicians like to blame the current weak economy on globalization, outsourcing and free trade. Yet such blame relies on a limited definition of globalization and overlooks the contribution of technology, suggests David Brooks of the New York Times. In particular, Brooks rejects protectionism as any solution for economic woes. Technology has made it feasible for workers anywhere in the...

Globalization Pushes More Women Into Informal Economy

Ama Achiaa Amankwah April 28, 2008
Gender inequalities have long left African women outside the formal economy, forced to fend for themselves in informal trade while their brothers and husbands secured employment in the civil sector and state-owned enterprises. Yet the liberalization of African state economies and the elimination of many government-supplied jobs have pushed men out of the formal economy to compete with women....

The Age of Nonpolarity

Richard N. Haass April 18, 2008
US dominance of international affairs is becoming increasingly archaic, asserts Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Rather than a multipolar model of states balancing power, Haass sees the 21st century segueing into a nonpolar international system, where the United States is joined by increasingly powerful states as well as centers of power “from above, by regional and...

To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You

Louise Story April 15, 2008
Computer programs that record, transmit and utilize detailed consumer preferences are in demand. Search engines monitor users’ every click. Even accounts like MySpace and Facebook, which are not search engines, have jumped onto the bandwagon and collect extensive information about their users. Direct advertising is lucrative. While consumers probably prefer seeing ads that interest them than not...