In The News

Reuters: An Imperfect UN Still the World’s Best Hope

Peter Apps September 27, 2018
The United Nations has a track record of preventing wars, pointing out atrocities and human rights violations, encouraging dialogue and setting goals. Reform would be useful – including an adjustment in the frustrating veto power of the Security Council’s five permanent members – but the world should be grateful. “The assembly gives smaller nations and groupings a voice, and its resolutions can...

The Atlantic: Trump Issues Scathing Rejection of “Globalism”

Uri Friedman September 26, 2018
The US president’s speech before the UN General Assembly undercut the organization’s mission of global cooperation. Instead, he lashed out at what he called an unelectable bureaucracy, lacking accountability: “We reject the ideology of globalism and accept the doctrine of patriotism.” Uri Friedman writes for the Atlantic: “More than going after a specific leader or country, Trump used this year’s...

Wall Street Journal: UN Gathering and Global Problems

Farnaz Fassihi and Valentina Pop September 25, 2018
Numerous challenges from nuclear weapons proliferation to climate change cannot be resolved without global cooperation. Yet some nations reject such global responsibility and even refuse to acknowledge that challenges exist. More than 130 heads of state and government are arriving for the UN General Assembly in New York City – and will continue debate over two competing world views, national...

ScienceAlert: Why the Earth Wobbles

Mike McRae September 25, 2018
About 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is water and the planet also has a molten core melted core, so the planet wobbles as it spins. The wobbling increased over the 20th century and changed direction with the start of the 21st century, and NASA researchers suggest that melting sea ice is a contributing factor. “NASA piled up a century's worth of data on planetary rotation, sea level...

CNBC: Europe, Russia, China Join Forces to Dodge Iran Sanctions

Natasha Turak September 25, 2018
The United States withdrew from the international agreement to contain Iran’s weapons program and imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil, aviation, auto and other industries as well as others doing business with Iran. Other signatories to the agreement – France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China – have developed a “special purpose vehicle” to “assist and reassure economic operators pursuing legitimate...

BBC: Fentanyl Crisis and Source of Illegal Drugs

September 24, 2018
The escalating trade quarrel between China and the United States prompts other worries and accusations. “The US believes factory-produced opioids - powerful painkillers increasingly abused by US citizens - are being made in China and sold from there too,” reports BBC News. ”One of the main ones is fentanyl - 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine - which is only approved in the US for severe pain...

Time: Financial Crisis Undermined Global Order

Ian Bremmer September 21, 2018
Crises give countries an incentive to adjust, and the 2008 financial crisis – following on the heels of the costly war in Iraq – eroded confidence in US leadership and capitalism. Likewise, Europe struggled with the euro crisis and a stream of migrants fleeing unrest and conflict in the Middle East. “Today, the global balance of power is no longer clear,” argues Ian Bremmer for Time. China...