In The News

Obama’s Global Challenges

Bruce Stokes November 9, 2012
The US has the world’s largest economy and military and, like it or not, citizens around the world recognize that they must live with the presidential choice of US voters. Political analysts have estimated that US presidents tend to keep about 75 percent of their promises, and President Barack Obama has maintained a higher rate, reported at more than 80 percent during his first term in office....

Reelected Obama Looks at Fiscal Cliff

David Dapice November 7, 2012
President Barack Obama has won the hard fought battle for a second term. But he has no time to rest or celebrate. The president and US politicians must hurry to put finances in order, warns economist David Dapice. Congress failing to agree on raising taxes or cut spending invoked a deus ex machina of painful automatic cuts and deadlines. In summer of 2011, the US Congress came close to...

Europe, Not Euro, May Break Apart

Joergen Oerstroem Moeller November 2, 2012
Scotland, Catalonia, Flanders and other regions in Europe mull breaking away from their respective nation-states, but that doesn’t necessarily signal an insular outlook. Instead, Scotland is opening offices in Washington and Brussels, nurturing ties and exploring dissociating from British inclinations to exit the European Union. Cultural traditions became low priority during an era of empires,...

Will China Delay Reform – Again?

Mary Kay Magistad October 29, 2012
Every decade, China’s Communist Party undergoes a leadership transition. The Brookings Institution estimates that about 70 percent of the members of three leading institutions - the Politburo Standing Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission – will be replaced, marking the largest shift in power in three decades. Party power in recent years is increasingly linked with...

US Lags in Race for Tech Talent

Vivek Wadhwa October 26, 2012
The US is highly protectionist on labor and jobs. The country remains a top destination among skilled talent because of its opportunities in education, angel investors and markets. But regulations on visas that allow immigrants to work at US firms increasingly lead to bottlenecks in the application process and career obstacles for individuals in a highly mobile global market for top talent. US...

China Rebalancing Won’t Doom Region

Deepak Gopinath October 24, 2012
China aims to be more than an assembly line. The government is actively rebalancing its economy to exit industries dependent on raw materials and labor, and that provides great opportunity for China’s neighbors in two ways, explains Deepak Gopinath, global markets director for Trusted Sources, an emerging-markets consulting firm. Neighboring economies can pick up the slack in low-value industries...

Al Qaeda’s Resurgence

Bruce Riedel October 22, 2012
It’s human nature to long to be part of a greater purpose, to sacrifice and battle for country or values. This is no less true for marginalized, uneducated youth in the Muslim world, chafing against interventions and other forms of globalization that make inequities only more pronounced. Al Qaeda may not be a popular movement, but it’s not on its last legs, argues Bruce Riedel, former official...