In The News

Latin Americans Wonder if Democrats Are Traders

Sibylla Brodzinsky November 30, 2006
In an effort to keep good jobs in the US, Democrats in US Congress may push to change trade policy with the Americas. But that could result in job loss in countries like Colombia and Peru. Labor activists of both continents claim that many of these jobs are exploitative, but even so, the loss of steady work could result in economic instability, a spike in the illegal drug trade, as well as a...

Speed Bump at the Border

Thomas B. Edsall November 29, 2006
With Democrats victorious in the November mid-term elections, a disgruntled middle class expects some immediate protections on jobs, wages as well as health and retirement benefits. But the Democratic Party is divided about how to deliver economic benefits to workers: One camp embraces the economic benefits of globalization, and another group tends toward protectionism and controls on trade,...

Globalization and God – Part II

Bruce Mazlish November 28, 2006
A spike in religious violence around the globe leads many observers to assume that secularism has a diminished influence in international politics. But surges of religious fervor in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the US are a backlash against modernity, whose ideas and freedoms cannot be swept under some global rug and forgotten. In the second part of this two-part series, historian Bruce...

Globalization and God – Part I

Pratap Bhanu Mehta November 23, 2006
The politics of religious respect has become more complex in recent years as the magnifying glass of the secular West focuses on Islam – and religion in general. This two-part series examines the globalization of religion and its influence on international politics. The judgmental quality of any moral system instigates conflict with others who do not believe. Policy analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta...

Is India Emerging as France of Asia?

Alyssa Ayres November 21, 2006
The current India visit by China’s President Hu Jintao to celebrate 50 years of relationship between the two countries will be watched closely by India’s newest friend, the United States. The two Asian giants have shaken off their frosty relations since their 1962 border war, and during the past five years their economic ties have blossomed. But the relationship between the US and India, shorn of...

Getting Beyond Donald Rumsfeld

Joseph S. Nye November 20, 2006
While most US citizens oppose the war in Iraq, just as many still favor the war on terror. Most US citizens are too impatient for the time-consuming process of soft power – as described by Harvard professor Joseph Nye, which changes attitudes with time, education and ideas. Policies of aggression and war only create new jihadists, Nye argues. The ideas spread by education, entrepreneurship or...

The New Domino Theory

Robert B. Reich November 20, 2006
The recent visit to Vietnam by President Bush and the way American political parties are dealing with America’s old enemy are rich in irony. Four decades ago the US sent hundreds of thousands of troops and spent billions of dollars in Vietnam with the goal of preventing the country from falling like a domino in the Moscow-led Communist camp. But Soviet Communism collapsed and Vietnam adopted a...