After a turbulent year in Pakistan, a civilian parliament has taken over the reins of government from General Pervez Musharraf and confronts a range of domestic and foreign issues. “Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gillani therefore faces not only the problems created by Musharraf’s national security...
Click here for the original article on the MIT Center for International Studies.
China is a world power on the rise, with a growing economy, a proud citizen base that cherishes education, and leadership that promises peaceful transitions to democracy. All will be on display with the Beijing Olympics in August. But national aspirations can collide with the expectations generated...
Left out of the dream: China's rising power should be accompanied by an openness to the world, including the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama Enlarge image
EDMONTON: China’s reemergence as a great power has come a...
Both John McCain and Barack Obama have focused their climate-change policies on efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The controversial Bjorn Lomborg, however, argues that reducing carbon emissions will cause great harm to the world economy while doing little to stop global warming. Instead,...
Click here for the article on Project Syndicate.
Politics can be messy when a group of voters depend on outside aid. Palestinians elected members of Hamas during summer of 2006, causing alarm among Western nations that provided much aid to the struggling government. Western governments cut aid since the election and civil strife has increased. So...
Hamas' victory-like language cannot hide the fact that the final outcome of its government is very negative, both at the political level and with regard to the living conditions of the Palestinian people. For his part...
Economists debate whether the financial interdependence of the modern world provides insulation against shocks or sets the stage for a chain reaction of woes. Every major power has its financial weak point – immense debt for the US; regional conflicts and poverty for India; and a lack of...
Export bounty: China's farsighted planning in building roads and ports has yielded a bonanza in trade. Enlarge image
SINGAPORE: Recent ructions in Asian financial markets and deepening US anxiety over its...
Economic growth used to produce widespread wealth – and a combination of low inflation and unemployment once reflected a content and productive society. A widening income gap between rich and poor, in countries as diverse as the US and China, however, is producing large groups of disgruntled or...
Click here for the original article on The Independent's website.
“Purchasing power parity” is a complex economic theory that suggests identical goods cost the same in different countries and allows economists to account for the influence of exchange rates and inflation on prices. Relying on that system of measurement, an Asian Development Bank report this summer...
Click here to read the article in the Financial Times.
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Researchers have long pointed to some correlations in international affairs: Oil countries tend not to be entrepreneurial; nations dependent on one industry, such as oil extraction, tend to be hostile with the US; and entrepreneurial nations tend to befriend the US. But such observations were...
Source of wealth: Nations rich in oil may lose their innovative edge; above, shoppers crowd a Russian mall NEW YORK: In the post-Cold War period, researchers have long wondered why some countries befriend the US. They have noted some...