In The News

Global Warming Blamed for Ice Shelf Collapse

March 28, 2008
Satellite images show a large ice shelf breaking off from the Antarctica Peninsula and offer more evidence of climate change. Scientists correctly predicted such breakages, but were off about the rapid speed. Researchers have suggested that melting polar ice could lead to rising sea levels, which could increase flooding for coastal communities during storms. The Antarctica Peninsula has been...

The Fungus That Conquered Europe

John Reader March 27, 2008
Globalization delivers both problems and solutions, and parallels can be found in the Great Potato Famine of 1845-46 and the current subprime mortgage crisis. The fungus, after originating in Mexico and spreading throughout the US, attacked Europe’s potato fields in the mid-1840s and led to widespread famine. The crisis prompted Britain to dismantle bureaucratic and protectionist Corn Laws that...

Democracy in Decline

Ayman El-Amir March 26, 2008
Most countries of the world are democracies, but recent elections demonstrate the challenges of the political system. The US promoted democracy in its battle against terrorism, and yet entrenched “regimes have borrowed America's fight against terrorism slogan as a way to stifle domestic dissent, arrest the dynamics of change, hamper the progress of basic freedoms and human rights and rig...

Regulating the Global Commons – Part I

Scott Barrett March 26, 2008
The tragedy of the commons was a term popularized by Garrett Hardin in 1968, to describe the abuse of public goods. Without regulations or the protection provided by ownership, the population rushes to use any common area – whether public lands, oceans or the skies overhead – and the subsequent pressure can destroy sites open to all. This two-part series examines the need for tighter...

No Break for Globalization

Nayan Chanda March 25, 2008
With unemployment and foreclosures skyrocketing, trade deficit woes, more and more Americans are becoming protectionist. Most Americans agree that foreign trade is reducing the demand for American-made goods, resulting in numerous job losses. While there is no question that trade has played a role in shrinking manufacturing jobs, Nayan Chanda points out that "it is only a minor part of the...

Nuclear Weapons: The Greatest Peril to Civilization

March 25, 2008
Ted Turner started a global broadcasting network well before globalization became a common currency. His philanthropic efforts have since demonstrated both his global vision and blunt assessments of the challenges facing the world. As such, Turner is a master of globalization. As co-founder of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Turner delivered the keynote address at a Yale Center for the Study of...

Oil May Not Grease Friendship

Amity Shlaes March 24, 2008
Researchers have long pointed to some correlations in international affairs: Oil countries tend not to be entrepreneurial; nations dependent on one industry, such as oil extraction, tend to be hostile with the US; and entrepreneurial nations tend to befriend the US. But such observations were based largely on anecdotal evidence. In a study for the Council of Foreign Relations, Amity Shlaes and...