In The News

Unprecedented Isolation: El País

Moisés Naím May 6, 2020
Covid-19 confounds humans with its exponential growth and cases doubling in increasingly shorter periods of time, resulting in steep curve. The United States responded swiftly on the economic front, approving more than $2 trillion in stimulus spending. Still, the largest economic stimulus package in history won’t prevent economic recession, job losses, bankruptcies and evictions. All countries...

Invisible Danger From Afar: Times of India

Nayan Chanda May 2, 2020
Travels and globalization have long been linked to new diseases that contributed to the death of millions: In the 1330s, the bubonic plague traveled along trade routes from China to Crimea and Europe. After 1492, European explorers introduced diseases like smallpox and diphtheria to the Americas, ravaging native populations. Such diseases disrupted trade for a spell, but innovations and...

Dire Diplomacy in Global “Race for Vaccine”: Wired

Brendan Borrell May 1, 2020
The US Naval Medical Research Center once had more than 12 labs around the world, developing foreign partnerships to identify emerging disease. A research team identified the avian flu in Indonesia in 2005, though the partnerships had been deteriorating in 1998 over concerns about vaccine sales, suspended aid and spying worries. The 9/11 attacks and the 2008 financial crisis then reduced budgets...

Inevitable “Greater Depression”? Project Syndicate

Nouriel Roubini April 29, 2020
Tackling problems swiftly, well in advance, tends to produce better results than waiting for crisis. After the 2007-08 crisis, governments failed to address imbalances and other structural problems. Nouriel Roubini, writing for Project Syndicate, anticipates a lingering depression throughout the decade due to economic risks long in play combined with an uneven pandemic response. He identifies 10...

Radar to Detect Deforestation: ENS

April 29, 2020
Major palm oil producers and buyers – including Cargill, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Pepsico and Unilever – are supporting development of a radar system for monitoring deforestation in near real-time. “With this information, the companies say they can more quickly mobilize follow-up actions on the ground and work to improve the sustainability of commodity supply chains,” reports Environment News Service. “...

Deglobalization Gains Momentum: PIIE

Douglas A. Irwin April 28, 2020
International trade was already in retreat before the Covid-19. The pandemic will test cross-border supply chains, alliances, investments, travel and other connections. Douglas Irwin, writing for the Peterson Institute for International Economics, warns that protectionist steps to limit trade will slow or even reverse economic growth. He identifies recent eras of globalization: 1870 to 1914,...

Weapons Don’t Fight Pandemics: Deutsche Welle

Miodrag Soric April 27, 2020
Security comes in many forms and some nations invest in broader preparation than others, as demonstrated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Writing for Deutsche Welle, Miodrag Soric argues that countries that focused on arms purchases rather than disaster preparedness struggle with the pandemic. “Tanks, fighter planes and aircraft carriers – where many crew members have fallen ill with the coronavirus –...