In The News

How to Manage the Migrant Crisis

February 8, 2016
Chaotic management of the refugee crisis will tear Europe apart. The lack of an orderly process frustrates refugees and citizens alike, and many may turn to extremist responses. Then Europe would have little choice but to close borders. “Countries have a moral and legal duty to provide sanctuary to those who flee grave danger,” notes the Economist. “[I]t is in every country’s interest to help –...

Africa’s Success Story

John Feffer February 5, 2016
Though Botswana relied almost exclusively on its diamond wealth, its economy has grown steadily since 1966, rivaling China and South Korea’s growth rates. Good governance allowed Botswana to avoid the resource curse that afflicted many of its neighbors. Botswana’s diamond-producing industry is lucrative and provides well-paying, often unionized jobs to locals. Recently, diamond companies have...

Welcome to the Twenty-First Century

Joschka Fischer February 5, 2016
The world has many troubles including destabilized markets and low oil prices, high debt levels, terrorism and the ongoing refugee crisis for the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. The international order of the 20th century is shifting, and no suitable replacement is waiting in the wings. “Today, the Pax Americana that ensured a large degree of global stability has begun to fray – most...

Obama Visits a Mosque to Send Pointed Message to Non-Muslims

Roberta Rampton February 4, 2016
In his chapter on the "Tyranny of the Majority," Alexis de Tocqueville posed the question, "If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach?” Respect for minority rights, openness to the possibility that minorities might someday emerge as majority and will likewise...

A Window of Opportunity for Reforms in Vietnam

Dien Luong February 4, 2016
Vietnam has a long history of conflict with its large neighbor to the north, China. Conservative and incumbent Nguyen Phu Trong bested populist Nguyen Tan Dung in a contest for chief of the Vietnamese Communist Party. “Reforms will continue, albeit at a slower pace, as would increasingly closer ties with the United States,” explains Vietnamese journalist and Fulbright scholar Dien Luong. Likewise...

The Sun Gets Brighter

T.N. Ninan February 3, 2016
Oil prices are dropping and so, too, are the capital costs of solar energy installations. “Solar power is now cheaper than what electricity would cost if based on either oil at $50 per barrel, or its coal equivalent – or for that matter liquefied natural gas,” writes T.N. Ninan for Business Standard. “Solar energy has become the new energy source in many countries in Africa and South America, and...

A World of Scandal Descends on Malaysian Prime Minister

John Berthelsen February 3, 2016
Some political leaders might hope that by blocking media reports of investigations into corruption can eliminate the consequences, but the efforts often draw more global attention. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak has been linked to investigations, some on arms deals, in Switzerland, France and Saudi Arabia. John Berthelsen of Asia Sentinel describes a “government desperately scrambling to...