In The News

The Losers of Deglobalization

Pierpaolo Barbieri November 22, 2016
Brexit and Donald Trump’s presidency both rode to success on a wave of nationalistic fervor, based on the view that globalization on balance harms the UK and the US. Yet the histories of those countries demonstrate that economic protectionism can lead to political instability and worse, total war. In the 1930s, devaluation of British and American currencies, in the aim of making their own goods...

China and Russia Take the Helm of Interpol

Robbie Gramer November 21, 2016
The International Criminal Police Organization elected a Chinese official for its president and a Russian for vice president. Alexander Prokopchuk, one of four Interpol vice presidents, is the first Russian to hold the position. Meng Hongwei will lead the organization until 2020, and human rights watchers express concern that China could manipulate the office for its own interests. Beijing will...

Donald Trump and the Coming Test of International Order

Uri Friedman November 21, 2016
Foreign policy experts suggest that Trump may pose a test to the post-WWII international order, led by the United States and shaped by alliances, an open economy and support for liberal institutions. For seven decades, Republican and Democratic administrations argued in favor such an order and assumed that the consequences of collapse would be enormous. Uri Friedman interviews several experts for...

China and the US Undercut International Law

Humphrey Hawksley November 17, 2016
Major powers tend to reject international law when rulings run counter to their interests insisting that the distant courts carry no jurisdiction. China rejected a Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling in July and clings to expansive claims in the South China Sea, including Scarborough Shoal near the Philippines. China’s response mirrored US rejection of a 1986 International Court of Justice...

Trump Gives Carbon Price Foes New Line of Attack

Aaron Wherry November 17, 2016
US President-elect Donald Trump described climate change as a “hoax” for US businesses and promised to repeal environmental regulations and to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. China has since offered the reminder that the United States supported UN deliberations on a warming planet during the Reagan administration well before China knew such negotiations were underway. Canada and other...

Goodbye Globalization

Matt Phillips November 16, 2016
The US president-elect plans to increase jobs by ending trade that does not benefit the United States. That assumes the US is self-sufficient and that other countries might go along. Instead, the other countries, especially China as the world’s largest market and soon to be largest economy, will retaliate while possibly continuing trade with one another. Meanwhile, US prices will soar and quality...

Understanding Latin America’s New Political Paradigm

Ernesto Talvi November 11, 2016
In Latin America along with Europe and the United States, political parties that lean right are strengthening. Since the 1970s, social and political change is shown to be derived from cycles of “economic malaise,” writes Ernesto Talvi for the Brookings Institution. Corruption scandals combined with economic doldrums, as in the case of Brazil, have reduced popularity of left-leaning governments....