In The News

As Obama Takes Office, Global Press Turns to Regional Concerns

Richard Wike January 23, 2009
No American presidential bid in history has been so closely monitored by the international community as Barack Obama’s. For the Pew Global Attitudes Project, Richard Wike and Michael Remez compare reactions from newspapers around the globe, many of which focus on specific regional concerns. From Kenya to Kerala, Bolivia to Baghdad, media and citizens followed the campaign, rooting for the young...

Obama's Wi-Fi White House Speaks to the YouTube Age

Paul Harris November 17, 2008
In the midst of economic crisis, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his first “fireside chat” by radio on March 12, 1933, less than two months after entering office. President-elect Barack Obama did not wait that long, and two months before entering office, he turned to YouTube to share his thoughts with the public. “Technology and the internet are set to be a core part of the new...

Americans Hold Our Futures in Their Hands

Khalaf Ahmed Al Habtoor November 3, 2008
US voters in some states already wait in long lines to cast votes in a historic election, and the rest of the world can only wait and watch. The next US president will confront immense challenges and responsibility. “The person they decide upon this time literally has the power to make or break the futures of not only Americans but billions of their fellow global citizens,” writes Khalaf Ahmed Al...

FCC Vote on "White Spaces" to Be Delayed?

Cyrus Farivar October 28, 2008
Besides the presidential election, November 4 marks another big vote in the US, with the Federal Communications Commission set to decide whether to open its white space – unused space between channels that produces static on televisions – for unlicensed use that could potentially allow universal broadband access throughout the US. The amount of white space will increase after the US moves to...

Bail Out the Poor

Ramzy Baroud October 24, 2008
Reduced food supplies around the globe would seem to be a more immediate crisis than plummeting prices of homes and stocks in the wealthiest nations of the world, notes Ramzy Baroud, editor of the Palestine Chronicle, writing for Al-Ahram Weekly. Baroud questions why governments cannot act in coordinated and speedy ways to avert huge global disasters including climate change, population growth in...

Islamic Challenge to Indonesia’s Democracy

Sadanand Dhume October 15, 2008
Gains by radical parties around the globe highlight democracy’s ongoing vulnerability to anti-democratic movements. Indonesia – with its free press, stable economy, free elections, tolerant and inclusive policy – is no exception. But in local Indonesian politics, the radical Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has made dramatic gains, with extremists pressing for dress codes, Koran reading...

When Judges Make Foreign Policy

Noah Feldman October 2, 2008
US Supreme Court decisions comment on major trends, including globalization. Two perspectives have emerged from the court, notes law professor Noah Feldman, writing for the New York Times. One suggests that law “derives its legitimacy from being enacted by elected representatives of the people” and the other suggests that law aims for a “global ideal.” The US Supreme Court is divided between...