In The News

The Next Wave of Globalization: Offshoring R&D to India and China

Stephanie Overby November 27, 2007
Outsourcing accelerates globalization, spreading technology and skill transfer from advanced nations to less developed ones. Cheap labor represents potential talent, capabilities, and innovation. Employers praise US workers for superior communication skills and intuitive understanding of US businesses, but continue to shift technologically-demanding high-end R&D jobs to China and India. The...

Who Gains When the Dollar Sinks?

Scott B. MacDonald November 27, 2007
The US currency has sharply declined in value in recent years, which inevitably diminishes the nation’s economic health and influence abroad. So far, the US economy has been spared the full consequences of its struggling currency because the dollar’s historic strength has put it at the center of the world economy since World War II. Many nations' currencies are pegged to the dollar, and the...

American Special Forces in Pakistan: Back to the Future?

Paula R. Newberg November 21, 2007
The reaction to the news that the US Defense Department has decided to send Special Forces trainers to Pakistan’s unruly tribal areas has so far been muted. But the irony of the decision and its long-term implication for the Subcontinent is hard to miss. In the eighties, the US administration poured money and weapons in Pakistan to train the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The...

Why We Trade

Russell Roberts November 19, 2007
Debates featuring US presidential hopefuls feature complaints about trade deficits, outsourcing and the competitive threat of China. Author and professor Russell Roberts, though, offers the reminder that promoting foreign open markets and a protected one at home is no better than mercantilism. All countries are wary about such a strategy and won’t stand for it. On the other hand, free trade...

Cosmopolitan Masala: Diversity Enriches Us All

Philippe Legrain November 16, 2007
There is growing opposition in many countries to immigration, viewed by some as costing government treasuries and diluting national cultures. Philippe Legrain, a British economist and former adviser to the director-general of the World Trade Organization, argues that productivity flourishes in culturally diverse cities and that people are willing to pay to live and work in such fertile...

An Exit Strategy for Crooks and Dictators

Victor Mallet November 16, 2007
Cruel dictators and corrupt politicians who lose favor of their constituents often cling to power to escape retribution. Sometimes deals, including pardons or exile, are made with leaders who follow. “In an ideal world, criminals would be punished for their crimes without regard for their status,” writes Victor Mallet for the Financial Times, noting that political expediency often dictates the...

Let's Face the New “Core Facts”

Roger Cohen November 15, 2007
The United States attempts to exercise global leadership in a world that has changed dramatically in recent years. With the spread of new technologies to developing nations has come an explosion of information from sources other than Voice of America. With such a wide range of options and rapidly growing anti-Americanism, disaffected people in the Middle East and elsewhere see little reason to...