In The News

Illegal Logging: From the Rainforest to Your Dining Room

Patrick Winn October 12, 2011
The non-profit Environmental Investigation Agency reports far-reaching corruption in Vietnam’s logging industry: Much of the lumber is illegally smuggled into Vietnam from protected jungles in Laos and later exported as furniture to the United States. Though illegal imports to Vietnam amount to about 15 to 20 percent of total Vietnamese timber imports, the United Nations estimates that within...

With Growing Confidence, India Pursues Mergers Abroad

Vikas Bajaj October 6, 2011
With India removing protectionist shackles, its businesses are no longer content with large market shares in the country and now seek a global reach, reports Vikas Bajaj in a blog for the New York Times. In the last year and a half, Indian companies have spent more money on outbound mergers and acquisitions than foreign companies have spent on Indian deals, according to one accounting firm....

Burma Delivers Rebuff to China

Bertil Lintner October 3, 2011
Ever since the brutal Burmese suppression of democracy movement in the late 1980s, China has emerged as the principal backer of the military regime that renamed the country Myanmar. Sanctioned by the West, the military regime depends on China for trade, arms supplies and infrastructure aid. Now a presidential announcement suspending the Myitsone Dam project on the Irrawaddy River, a joint...

Pakistan Seeks Control of Its Afghanistan Endgame

Bruce Riedel September 30, 2011
Encouraging Taliban attacks on NATO, leaders of the Pakistan military and its intelligence service are impatient for the US to abandon the war in Afghanistan. The Pakistani goal is to prevent a pro-India government in Afghanistan and install instead a puppet Islamic regime. In testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, the outgoing chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral...

Taking It to the Streets

Nayan Chanda September 14, 2011
Inspired by protests in the Arab world, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in August to support one man’s fast. India is already the world’s largest democracy, and the goal of these protesters is reforming democracy to expose and end pervasive corruption. Government employees at every level routinely demand extra fees, small and large, simply to do their job. Favoritism, bribes and...

Democratic Hysteria

Pranab Bardhan September 8, 2011
Democracy requires an educated and well-informed citizenry, and to paraphrase former US President Thomas Jefferson, a nation cannot expect to be both ignorant and free, living in a state of civilization. Two intelligent leaders, Barack Obama and Manmohan Singh, are being sidelined by ignorant and passionate debates, observes economist Pranab Bardhan in an essay for Project Syndicate. In a quest...

The World After 9/11 – Part II

Stephen Tankel September 8, 2011
Al Qaeda made its mark by the dramatic 9/11 attacks, but it’s not alone in developing transnational networks striving for global jihad. This two-part YaleGlobal series analyzes terrorist threats which since 9/11 have sought to end modernization and multicultural societies across Asia and promote inter-religious conflagration. The second and final article analyzes the goals of Lashkar-e-Taiba, or...