Citing its commitment to US political sovereignty and strict immigration policies, the Trump administration has pulled the country of the United Nations’ global compact on migration. The announcement came within hours of the opening of a UN global conference on migration in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico...
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Protectionists assign blame for the COVID-19 pandemic on the trade, travel and migration associated with globalization. This overlooks how globalization has delivered prosperity and benefits. Still, an interconnected world cannot avoid shared risks, and even the most protectionist nations struggle...
Global governance fail? WHO declared a global emergency on January 30, yet many global leaders did not prepare; Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus meets with Xi Jinping, and President Donald Trump suspends US funding for the health...
Subsidies, originally intended as a tool of fairness, often transform into a tool for political power. The subsidies carry costs, both financial as well as with distorted and destabilized markets. Governments struggle to manage budgets, huge stockpiles, wasted resources and even unrest, explains...
Religion, Karl Marx famously wrote, is the opiate of the masses. He would be surprised how the quest for fairness has now turned subsidies — intended as a tool for equity — into a similarly powerful opiate of the people and an instrument of...
With Damascus in flames and massacres in the countryside, a diplomatic solution to the Syrian crisis seems impossible. International and regional powers are fiercely divided: The US and other Western powers won’t try a military intervention without approval from the UN Security Council. Russia and...
LONDON: Fifteen months after the crisis broke and took some 15,000 lives, no end is in sight for the Syrian conflict. With the interests of regional powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as Russia, China and the US lining up with Syrian parties...
Protesters may have permanently shaken the Arab world’s authoritarian order, argues Michael Hudson writing for Straits Times. The country of more than 80 million has a rich history of influencing and modernizing the region politically and culturally, he explains, and yet alliance with the US dulled...
Hosni Mubarak is still president of Egypt, but his days in power are numbered; there will be no Mubarak dynasty either. The authoritarian order in Egypt and throughout the Arab world has been profoundly shaken. The ousting of Ben Ali in Tunisia, a...
During the US election campaign and since, President Donald Trump and other members of his administration issued tough statements about China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea and promised to bulk up the US naval fleet. Thailand, both bilateral and multilateral treaty ally for the United...
How strong the grip? Thai military Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha meets with Chinese Party Secretary General Xi Jinping; head of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry B. Harris, left, with Thai Chief of Defense Forces General Surapong Suwana-Adth...
Turkey’s government has approved a law, which requires the president’s approval, imposing new regulations for the internet: “The law, which still requires final approval by the country's president, would permit the government to quickly shutter a website deemed inappropriate, and orders...
ANTAKYA, Turkey -- Turkey's Parliament approved a law on Thursday that would grant sweeping new powers to the government to censor and monitor the Internet traffic of citizens.
The law, which still requires final approval by the country's president...
Many nations view their citizens as resilient during times of crisis, capable of putting the best minds to work and and enduring sacrifices for the common good. The challenge during the COVID-19 crisis is convincing citizens to self-isolate, avoiding infections and overwhelming health systems –...
