In The News

Rice Industry Troubled by Genetic Contamination

Rick Weiss March 16, 2007
A decade ago, European farmers and regulators questioned US plans to defy insect or weather problems in the agriculture industry by modifing plant genetics. US researchers and regulators dismissed such concerns as unreasonable and protectionist, but have since discovered that the tiny bits of pollen can spread in many unintended ways. “Biotech crops approved only as animal feed have found their...

Wal-Mart Unveils Plans to Score Electronics on Environmental Sustainability

March 16, 2007
The world’s largest retailer has a reputation for slashing prices and giving consumers a bargain – so much so that Wal-Mart’s tactics with labor and suppliers often become controversial. Although adding environmental protections to any product often raises prices or decreases visibility in terms of packaging, Wal-Mart has set out to promote environmental sustainability. Starting in 2008, the...

The New New World Order

Daniel W. Drezner March 15, 2007
People accuse the Bush administration of unilateralism, and the US dominates many global institutions, from the International Monetary Fund to the World Trade Organization. But according to Daniel Drezner, a professor of international politics, writing in “Foreign Affairs,” the Bush administration has led the way in encouraging global institutions to prepare for rising powers like India, China,...

Silicon Valley's Immigration Problem

Elizabeth Corcoran March 12, 2007
Only a decade ago, the graduates of India’s finest universities looked to the US for jobs and other opportunities. “The US took “for granted that these talented immigrants want to come here and that they will help the next generation of American start-ups achieve greatness,” writes journalist Elizabeth Corcoran for “Forbes.” But recent graduates of universities like the Indian Institute of...

Iran-Saudi Arabian Embrace: A New Beginning?

Dilip Hiro March 9, 2007
The US, struggling to control violence in Iraq, has ratcheted up its threat against neighboring Iran as a primary culprit. Longstanding US concerns about Iran defying the international community by developing nuclear weapons have recently been heightened by its accusation that the Islamic state has been supporting Shiite militias against Sunnis in Iraq’s ongoing civil war. Conservative US...

Managing Globalization: How Fast China Grows Will Affect Everyone

Daniel Altman March 8, 2007
Since the end of its civil war, China has achieved staggeringly high rates of growth. Except during crisis periods like the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the Chinese economy has increased its size by between 8 and 10 percent a year. Today’s economists are divided over the question of whether China’s extraordinary growth will continue. Some, like James Trippon of “The China Stock...

Hershey's Outsourcing

Herb Field March 7, 2007
Entire towns often grow up around a company. For example, Hershey, Pennsylvania, was nicknamed “the sweetest place on earth,” after Milton S. Hershey built what was then the world’s largest chocolate factory in 1903. Hershey constructed not only a factory that provided a luxury product to the middle class, but a community with comfortable homes and services for his employees. More than 100 years...