In The News

World Confronts a Choice Between Chaos and Order

Philip Stephens November 27, 2008
US President-elect Barack Obama will enter office in January with a host of priorities that require immediate action, as well as concern that US influence is on the wane with new multilateralism unfolding. “More likely, the trend will be towards fragmentation and instability as the new powers take what they want from the existing order while preserving a freedom of manoeuvre outside it,” writes...

Lessons Obama Can Learn from the Wily North Korean

Peter M. Beck November 26, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama will enter office on January 20 with multiple security dilemmas around the globe clamoring for attention. Impoverished North Korea, with its nuclear weapons program and ruled by a ruthless dictator, is one security matter that should be on the top of his list, argues Korea analyst Peter M. Beck. Except when President Bill Clinton threatened to use force against North...

The Limits of Growth – Part II

Chandran Nair November 24, 2008
Governments pursue rapid growth as a path to prosperity, and policymakers generally depend on markets to reveal and control problems. In the second of this two-part YaleGlobal series on the limits to growth, Chandran Nair, founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, points to parallels between the global economic crisis and climate change. Both challenges are rooted in the pursuit of excessive...

Obama’s Global Tryst

Nayan Chanda November 24, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama enters office as the globe confronts grave economic crisis. He must continue supporting free trade, but at the same time assist hundreds of thousands of Americans who struggle with job loss, falling home prices and foreclosures, and immense economic uncertainty about health care, energy and other resources. At the same time, Obama must manage two wars, one he promised...

After US Breakthrough, Europe Looks in Mirror

Steven Erlanger November 21, 2008
Minorities all over Europe look to Barack Obama’s election as US president, with hope of one day achieving similar success, but most are skeptical of such change taking place in their respective countries. Nations such as France, Germany, the UK and Italy struggle to handle growing minority populations and their integration into society. There is small, if any, minority representation in Europe’s...

Huddled Classes

November 21, 2008
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released results of a 2006 study on how migrant children fare in host countries, based on performance in language, math and science. One conclusion is that “almost everywhere immigrant students fare worse than locals,” largely because of difficulties with language, yet first-generation immigrant children tend to have more motivation than...

The Limits of Growth – Part I

Bo Ekman November 21, 2008
The double whammy of two global crises – recession and climate change – emerged after too many of the world’s citizens pursued lifestyles that the planet simply cannot sustain. This YaleGlobal series explores the limits of growth and calls for global governance that will encourage sustainable lifestyles that could ensure the planet’s survival. Fractured regional or national governance only...