In The News

Filipino Catholic Church Continues to Fight Family Planning

Marilen J. Danguilan January 13, 2016
In 2012, the Philippines enacted the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, providing for family planning. But implementing the law has not been easy with opposition from the Catholic Church. “The law polarized the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, with a growing 100 million population,” writes Marilen J. Danguilan for Asia Sentinel. Opponents have removed funding for...

In Final State of the Union, Obama Lays Out “4 Big Questions” for Future

Gregory Korte January 13, 2016
US President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union addressed trends in globalization long analyzed by YaleGlobal Online: growing global concern and support for policies to stem climate change, the threat of terrorism lurking among civilian populations, increasing reliance on technology and changing nature of work, the need for global cooperation to combat disease, the dangers and distraction of...

Faulty Mission?

Nayan Chanda January 12, 2016
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched “Make in India” to create jobs and attract foreign investment, but the campaign “remains mired in political battles and cultural battles,” explains Nayan Chanda, founding editor of YaleGlobal Online who also consults for the publication. “India’s hope to take up the slack from China’s … increasingly expensive labour force may have come too late.” The...

The US Faces Rival Powers Waging Hybrid Warfare

Richard Weitz January 12, 2016
Overall, global military spending decreased in 2014 from the previous year, reports the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The United States spends more than other countries on defense, yet struggles against the skillful use of hybrid tactics by China and Russia, explains Richard Weitz. The senior fellow and director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at Hudson Institute...

Madaya Syria: Aid Convoy Sets Off for Besieged Town

January 11, 2016
Small towns in rural Syria are blocked from basic supplies due to a protracted civil war and blockades: “only 10% of the UN's requests to deliver aid to people to in besieged and hard-to-reach areas were granted,” reports BBC News. “Blockades have been a feature of Syria's civil war but the plight of Madaya has drawn international attention, partly due to images emerging of severely...

The New Geo-Economics

Joseph E. Stiglitz January 11, 2016
Global economic growth, offering connections and solutions that have enriched many and lifted more out of poverty, has slowed in recent months. Economist Joseph Stiglitz compares the processes in negotiating two agreements – the global climate agreement approved in Paris and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, yet to be ratified, a trade agreement among 12 nations including the United States, but not...

Iranian-Saudi Tensions Have Little to Do With Religion

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam January 8, 2016
Saudi Arabia miscalculated on how global observers might react to its execution of Shia cleric Sheikh al-Nimr. Reflecting poor judgment and insecurity, the execution “demonstrates that the kingdom has lost its cool,” writes Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, a philosophy professor at the University of London. He suggests the notion that the Sunni-Shia divide in Islam spurs conflict is “analytically flawed.”...