In The News

The Cult of Cronyism

Siddharth Varadarajan April 2, 2014
India’s general election kicks off 7 April and by May should determine the next prime minister for the world’s largest democracy. Analysts anticipate a single-minded focus on global corporate interests and wealth creation from candidate Narendra Modi. Writing for Seminar, Siddharth Varadarajan suggests the shift in corporate allegiance from INC, the Congress party, to BJP, or Bharatiya Janata...

How We Can Manufacture Forests Like Toyota Makes Cars

Marcus Wohlsen April 2, 2014
Forests and individual trees offer numerous benefits that include absorbing carbon emissions and noise, conserving energy and shielding shelters, preventing water pollution or soil erosion, and even increasing property values and reducing violence along city streets. An industrial engineer with Toyota applied strategies from the car manufacturer and Japanese forester Akira Miyawaki to growing...

Turkey: Erdoğan Faces Twittering Opposition

Anna Beth Keim March 26, 2014
A desire for democracy – the ability to select one’s representatives, but also engage in informed debate on policies with compromise – may slowly take root in Turkey. Spring protests in Gezi Park gave way to harsh crackdown, a government corruption investigation in December and active debate over Twitter since, including leaks of recordings that led to resignations of ministers and growing...

Defying the Taliban, Afghans Head to the Polls

Marc Grossman March 20, 2014
Despite threats from the Taliban, as evidenced today, March 20, in Jalalabad and impending withdrawal of international forces, Afghans head to the polls to elect a new president April 5. But there is reason for hope as “Afghanistan is not the same country it was in 2001, and Afghans seem ready to fight for what they have achieved at such great cost,” argues Marc Grossman, the former United...

Fig Leaf of Legitimacy

Nayan Chanda March 17, 2014
About 60 percent of the electorate turned out in Crimea for a special referendum; reports suggest that 95 percent voted to join Russia. Next, Russia will decide whether to annex the peninsula it passed to Ukraine in 1954. Most of the international community opposed the hurried election, especially after Russia dispatched troops and tanks to the area. “Among the undecided but leaning towards...

The US and Iran in a Tantalizing Dance

Abbas Amanat September 26, 2013
There was no handshake between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and US President Barack Obama during the United Nations General Assembly, but the tone of their rhetoric promises a sea change in relations after more than three decades. The Iranian public supports Rouhani's moderate proposals as a means to securing respect, stability and an end to debilitating sanctions imposed by the West....

Bo Xilai Conviction Will Do Little to Curb Corruption

Zhiwu Chen September 24, 2013
China’s officials discourage public debate about corruption, regarding it as criticism of Communist Party rule, yet some abuses of power can’t escape attention, notably those associated with Bo Xilai, the popular former party chief of Chongqing, who has received a life sentence for bribery. The trial avoided years of systematic abuses, and so far, President Xi Jinping is following old trends,...