In The News

Internet of Things: Have We Bitten Off More Than We Can Chew?

Alyssa Newcomb and Jo Ling Kent October 28, 2016
Hackers commandeered web cameras and possibly other devices to launch an attack on internet service management company Dyn. The company reports that it fended off multiple attacks in recent weeks. All types of gadgets for homes, cars and offices are linked to the internet to allow remote monitoring by users and updates from makers, and one security expert suggests that any device with an IP...

Top-Down, Bottom-Up Urban Design

Elizabeth Greenspan October 25, 2016
The United Nations Habitat III conference on urbanization in the developing world, the first in 20 years, convened in mid-October. Three sociologists – motivated to reshape the Athens Charter, a set of rigid guidelines crafted in 1943 to standardize urban design across the world – presented what they call the “Quito Papers,” a comprehensive guide and “more flexible way to design cities,” writes...

Green Sovereign Bonds: Tactical Moves on an Emerging Market

October 20, 2016
France issued the first green sovereign bond in September and China may soon follow, joining the ranks of institutions like the World Bank and large companies. Green bonds fund programs aimed at stemming climate change and promoting alternative energies, energy efficiency, water treatment and other forms of sustainable development. So far, yearly issuances represent about 1 percent of the global...

Is Globalization Sowing the Seeds of Its Own Undoing?

Jay Ogilvy October 14, 2016
Globalization’s fast pace is destabilizing, and the economic market is becoming more influential than the nation-state, writers have argued. Inequality is entrenched with economic and cultural divisions in education, income and employment. “Those ‘who can take advantage of the global economy’ are clearly benefiting from globalization and tend to cluster in the same clubs, colleges and communities...

UN Secretary-General Must Manage Trilateral Divergences Over Globalization

Richard Weitz October 13, 2016
Portugal’s António Guterres, former head of the UN Refugee Agency, is officially the United Nations' secretary-general as of January 1, but the agreement “should not obscure the sharp differences among the Security Council’s leading members,” suggests Richard Weitz, director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at Hudson Institute. Weitz analyzes three speeches before the United...

World Bank Admits Some Have Lost Out From Free Trade

Kamal Ahmed October 12, 2016
The benefits of globalization and trade are not spread evenly, suggests a World Bank internal document reported on by BBC News. “Jim Kim, the head of the World Bank, told the BBC that he understood why people were angry in advanced economies despite the fact that free trade was one of the ‘most powerful’ drivers of growth and prosperity,” reports Kamal Ahmed for BBC. “Kim said that 20% of jobs...

Battle for Aleppo: How Syria Became the New Global War

Riham Alkousaa, Benjamin Bidder, Christian Neef, Maximilian Popp, Gordon Repinski, Christoph Reuter, Mathieu von Rohr, Samiha Shafy and Holger Stark October 12, 2016
Foreign fighters have converged on Syria, especially Aleppo, and reporters describe the many languages and goals on the war’s frontlines for Spiegel: “Aleppo, the destroyed, divided city, has become a symbol for the horrors of the air war that the Syrian regime and its allies are waging against the Sunni rebels, as well as a symbol for the impotence of the West.” Russia backs the authoritarian...