In The News

A Trade Fiction

Ernesto Zedillo September 8, 2005
Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, outlines in this Forbes Magazine commentary a fictional triumph for the Doha Round of trade negotiations. In the fantasy, the Doha Round sets the stage for a multilateral trading system that will soon lift all protectionist trade restrictions, a liberalization of services, and worldwide acknowledgement of the principles...

A Chasm Grows in "Flat" World

Mark Trumbull September 7, 2005
"In theory," writes Mark Trumbull in The Christian Science Monitor, "as economies open up to commerce, there should be greater equality of opportunities – and incomes." Unfortunately, as Trumbull reports, globalization is not the ultimate cure for poverty, as others may have hoped. While the economies of countries like China and India have certainly blossomed with increased...

International Cooperation at a Crossroads

September 7, 2005
This month, world leaders will gather to review progress since the 2000 Millennium Declaration, a pledge to eliminate global poverty. Though much progress has been made, according to the United Nations 2005 Human Development Report, much work remains – particularly in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The report focuses on three "pillars of cooperation,"...

Hurricane Raises Fears of Global Energy Crisis

Thomas Catan August 31, 2005
As flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans, Louisiana, the full scope of damage due to Hurricane Katrina has yet to be discerned. Nine oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico – 12 percent of US refining capacity – are now closed. As a result, gas prices in the United States spiked immediately after the storm, but some observers worry that the impact will be more drastic. "It is now...

Creating Islamist Phantoms

Adam Curtis August 30, 2005
In a Guardian commentary, Adam Curtis writes that it was a mistake, in the wake of 9/11, for the West to exaggerate the status of al-Qaida by painting a hyperbolic picture of an organized and far-reaching terrorist network. Curtis suggests that the true threat came not from a sophisticated network, but from individuals and groups linked by an idea. After the London bombings, many experts seem...

Prices Transform Oil into a Weapon

Ian Bremmer August 29, 2005
Alongside the fear that high oil prices will dampen global economic growth lies another serious threat: It is increasingly likely that certain oil-producing states may use the valued fuel as a political weapon – and effectively so, according to Ian Bremmer. Given the current state of global markets, any interruption of output will likely drive up prices. At the same time, petro-states are...

The Creative Evolution of World Trade

Susan Esserman August 23, 2005
Often subject to accusations of inadequate transparency and insufficient accountability, the World Trade Organization took a big step toward more open practices. A dispute panel on hormone-fed beef in the EU has decided to open hearings to the public – allowing closed-circuit television cameras to record the proceedings. Many delegates oppose the move, contending that some level of secrecy is...