In The News

Climate Accord Could Push A/C Out of Sweltering India’s Reach

Ellen Barry and Coral Davenport October 17, 2016
In India, a family’s first air conditioner marks upward mobility and the potential to reach the middle class. But the low-cost air conditioners usually contain hydrofluorocarbons, a “supergreenhouse gas,” report Ellen Barry and Coral Davenport of the New York Times. Negotiators from more than 150 nations have reached a global agreement to phase out use of HFCs. For countries like the United...

Thai King's Death Adds to Uncertainty About Obama's Faltering Asia Pivot

David Brunnstrom October 14, 2016
Monarchists maintain that the system's perks include continuity in governance and preparation of leaders. Uncertainty follows the death of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, especially for the US pivot to Asia, suggests David Brunnstrom for Reuters. In the article, Murray Hiebert describes regional political changes since 2011: "When the pivot started, you had Thailand engaged, a...

Is Globalization Sowing the Seeds of Its Own Undoing?

Jay Ogilvy October 14, 2016
Globalization’s fast pace is destabilizing, and the economic market is becoming more influential than the nation-state, writers have argued. Inequality is entrenched with economic and cultural divisions in education, income and employment. “Those ‘who can take advantage of the global economy’ are clearly benefiting from globalization and tend to cluster in the same clubs, colleges and communities...

Death of Thai King Throws Country Into Turmoil

October 13, 2016
Thailand is among the world’s 30 largest economies, though political differences since 2001 have contributed to slowing growth. The Thai king has died, and the crown prince who has lived mostly outside the country with a lifestyle described as excessive is less popular. The constitutional monarchy made military coups easier, reports the Economist, and it’s “widely assumed that the succession...

UN Secretary-General Must Manage Trilateral Divergences Over Globalization

Richard Weitz October 13, 2016
Portugal’s António Guterres, former head of the UN Refugee Agency, is officially the United Nations' secretary-general as of January 1, but the agreement “should not obscure the sharp differences among the Security Council’s leading members,” suggests Richard Weitz, director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at Hudson Institute. Weitz analyzes three speeches before the United...

Battle for Aleppo: How Syria Became the New Global War

Riham Alkousaa, Benjamin Bidder, Christian Neef, Maximilian Popp, Gordon Repinski, Christoph Reuter, Mathieu von Rohr, Samiha Shafy and Holger Stark October 12, 2016
Foreign fighters have converged on Syria, especially Aleppo, and reporters describe the many languages and goals on the war’s frontlines for Spiegel: “Aleppo, the destroyed, divided city, has become a symbol for the horrors of the air war that the Syrian regime and its allies are waging against the Sunni rebels, as well as a symbol for the impotence of the West.” Russia backs the authoritarian...

World Bank Admits Some Have Lost Out From Free Trade

Kamal Ahmed October 12, 2016
The benefits of globalization and trade are not spread evenly, suggests a World Bank internal document reported on by BBC News. “Jim Kim, the head of the World Bank, told the BBC that he understood why people were angry in advanced economies despite the fact that free trade was one of the ‘most powerful’ drivers of growth and prosperity,” reports Kamal Ahmed for BBC. “Kim said that 20% of jobs...