In The News

China Overtakes US as World’s Largest Goods Trader

Jamil Anderlini, Lucy Hornby January 22, 2014
The world’s second largest economy, China, has most likely overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest trader in goods, based on 11 months of data from 2013. “Trade with the rest of Asia and increasing flows with the Middle East represent a shift in power away from the US, still the world’s largest economy,” reports the Financial Times. Chinese officials anticipate trade and the national...

Americans Want to Turn Away From World’s Problems

Bruce Stokes January 16, 2014
The United States may no longer view itself as the world’s leading advocate for military engagements or multilateral efforts to promote freedom, democracy and human rights, suggests a study by the Pew Research Center. Americans are war weary, and about half of 2000 adults surveyed in the fall 2013 suggest that the country is overextended, writes Bruce Stokes, the center’s director of global...

The Plight of the Globe’s Domestic Workers

Susan Froetschel January 15, 2014
Domestic workers and diplomats may be but pawns for nations struggling with their own internal quarrels and place in the world. The arrest of an Indian consulate officer in New York City for filing false information on a nanny’s wages triggered outrage in India. The immediate official reaction was that Devyani Khobragade has immunity from arrest including a standard body search and that the crime...

The Misuse of American Might and the Price Paid

Andrew J. Bacevich January 13, 2014
The United States has engaged in military interventions with good intentions, but struggles to deliver lasting stability, argues Andrew J. Bacevich for the Los Angeles Times, and “instead of promoting stability – perhaps the paramount U.S. interest not only in the Islamic world but also globally – Washington's penchant for armed intervention since the end of the Cold War, and especially...

US Cold Snap Fuels Climate Debate

Jeff Tollefson January 10, 2014
A sudden drop in temperatures across the United States has ignited debate about the influence of climate change and polar melt over the stability of one of the world’s two jet streams. “The polar jet stream is a natural product of Earth’s rotation and climate system, created as warm air from the south merges with cold Arctic air,” writes Jeff Tollefson for Nature. “Most of the time it is fairly...

Will TTIP Harm the Global Trading System?

Katinka Barysch and Michael Heise January 9, 2014
The European Union’s member states form the world’s largest economy followed by the United States. So, the rest of the world is wary about ongoing negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. Other trading partners of the US and the EU may have to meet new regulations without having a voice in their making. Or in other areas, the partners may have to deal with two...

How Globalization Isolates Struggling Cities

Aaron M. Renn January 8, 2014
The government and businesses of Chicago probably have more to do with cities in Germany or Japan than Indianapolis, the capital city of a neighboring state about 300 kilometers away, as suggested by Richard Longworth in his book “Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism.” And communities increasingly embrace such long-distance connections: “In the age of globalization,...