In The News

Latin America Looks for a Fresh Start With Obama

Tim Padgett January 20, 2009
A full plate of foreign-policy challenges, including a war on terror, left the US little choice but to neglect Latin America in recent years, occasionally repeating old advice on drugs, free trade and democratic elections. So the region set out to establish its own global connections, and one example is China’s trade with Latin America increased tenfold over the past decade. President Barack...

Hu Jintao Takes Personal Charge of Fight Against Charter 08

Mark O'Neill January 16, 2009
A small group of Chinese intellectuals and activists published what’s called Charter 08, calling for an independent legal system, freedom of association and the end of one-party rule, timing their call with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reports Mark O’Neill for the Asia Sentinel. As the global economic downturn reduces demand for manufactured goods, closes...

Regional Fallout from Thai Turmoil

Bertil Lintner January 15, 2009
Bitter political division in Thailand against the backdrop of the failing health of the constitutional monarch and the resultant instability has been affecting trade and tourism for neighboring nations that rely on the country as a regional hub, explains journalist and author Bertil Lintner. After years of irregularities and a military coup in 2006, the former ruling People’s Power Party was...

Obama’s Worst Pakistan Nightmare

David E. Sanger January 13, 2009
Pakistani security personnel adamantly insist that their nuclear arsenal is safe, but US security officials do not agree. Senior officials in the Bush administration worry that radical Islamist groups could gain access to the weapons by either seizing them or by infiltrating the labs as scientists. Security officials also worry that extremists could use regional violence to manipulate Pakistan...

Democrats Push Obama for Smaller Tax Cut in Stimulus Package

Peter Nicholas January 10, 2009
President Barack Obama faces pressure from his own party to adjust a government economic stimulus plan of $775 billion, reducing tax cuts and spending more on road, bridge and infrastructure construction. The US politicians anticipate that some combination of spending and tax cuts could increase US confidence and improve the overall economy. But tax cuts and spending will also add to the US debt...

Divergence Grows Between China and the West – Part II

Michael C. Davis December 23, 2008
The West expresses increasing concern as China seems bent on hewing its own course, even on domestic matters such as handling unrest in Tibet, while China naturally resents foreign interference in domestic affairs. In the second of this two-part YaleGlobal series on divergence in foreign policy between the West and China, law professor Michael Davis addresses the rising tension over Tibet as...

The Revolt of a Disappointed Generation

Manfred Ertel December 18, 2008
Greek youth have rioted for days in 20 cities and town, distraught about the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy and a society that offers limited opportunities for youth. The shooting unleashed anger about an inept, corrupt political system and spread quickly, explain Manfred Ertel and Daniel Steinvorth in Spiegel Online: “Sympathizers occupied the Greek consulates in Berlin and London,...