In The News

Slash and Burn

Saumya Roy May 26, 2006
In developing countries, farmers often rely on growing cotton for their livelihoods. But heavy loans, power and water shortages, and natural disasters have made growing cotton a dangerous venture. Farmers facing failure in India often resort to suicide. Meanwhile wealthy governments like the US subsidize their cotton farmers, contributing to a global glut in cotton and sinking prices. Monopoly...

India’s Secret Weapon

Richard Wilder May 25, 2006
Individuals have more reason to innovate when their governments carefully guard intellectual property rights. Authors Richard Wilder and Pravid Anand argue that India is more innovative than China, largely because of moves to protect intellectual property. The software industry is growing rapidly, not so much because of low costs and outsourcing, but because of innovations that are protected by...

Japan’s “Strategy” Criticized

Motoshige Ito May 11, 2006
Intellectuals and lawmakers throughout Southeast Asia complain about Japan’s diplomacy strategy for Asia. In this article, Professor Motoshige addresses Japan’s efforts to facilitate economic cooperation with other Asian nations – stemming from concern about China’s rapid economic expansion. Ito contends that Japan should hesitate to present its own model for economic cooperation in East Asia....

Japanese Discovery of Democracy

Masaru Tamamoto May 10, 2006
Political, economic, military and historical forces can put civilizations into conflict, but also create a basis for affinity. Japan portrays its own democracy and China’s single-party Communist rule as diametrically opposed, thus qualifying China’s economic success and accounting for recent chilly diplomatic relations. Yet the high-profile WWII history question, thrown into relief by the...

Microsoft's Gates Sees Vietnam Outsourcing Potential

Jason Folkmanis April 25, 2006
Vietnam’s economic growth, combined with a young population and high literacy rate, lures potential investors including the richest man in the world, Bill Gates. However, intellectual-property piracy also tends to run rampant in Vietnam and other nations with young impoverished populations. During a visit to the Communist country that eagerly seeks WTO membership, Gates suggested that Vietnam...

Bit of Malay Culture Is Now Vanishing Under Muslim Rules

Chris Prystay April 21, 2006
Introduced to Southeast Asia in the 13th century, Islam gradually supplanted Buddhism and Hinduism, but co-existed with ancient traditions over the centuries. Since the 1970s, however, fundamentalist Islam has spiked in multicultural countries such as Malaysia, with Muslim students and scholars galvanized by Iran emerging as an Islamic state. Political gains of Parti Islam parallel the increasing...

Globalization Old and New

Ullrich Fichtner April 20, 2006
Globalization comes in many forms, some more pleasing than others. As Vietnam eagerly pushes for incorporation into the WTO, it could discover that globalization becomes colonization, “Part Two.” Hanoi emerged from European influence with its dignity intact, according to author Ullrich Fichtner, but new and rapid development could transform the city’s charm, with small shops featuring gourmet...