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China's Cautious Pride in an Ancient Mariner

August 4, 2005
Six centuries ago, Chinese Admiral Zheng He embarked on the first voyage of a career that encompassed destinations as far as India, Persia, Arabia, and Africa. Though his achievements were forgotten for centuries, a re-emergence of interest in his story coincides with China's dramatic rise....

Oil Crisis Tests Putin’s Skill to Project Strength

April 16, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed global economic activity and oil demand. In early March, the Saudis tried to convince other oil producers to cut production, OPEC members and non-members alike. After Russia refused to go along, Saudi Arabia opened production, pressuring producers worldwide. The US...

A Better Approach to Globalization

October 4, 2018
Research repeatedly demonstrates that globalization delivers prosperity through trade and jobs, new technologies and ideas, cooperation and peace. But many individuals fear open societies, change and competition. Innovative technologies, especially robotics and artificial intelligence, compound the...

Identity Politics, Corruption, Insecurity: Brave New World

March 10, 2015
The phrase “identity politics” describes a range of political activity focused on shared experiences of injustice and marginalization, suggests the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. A global challenge emerges in addressing the activities, whether peaceful protests associated with the Arab Spring...

The US Should Rejoin the UNHRC

September 24, 2019
The United States announced it was leaving the UN Human Rights Council in 2018, expressing concern about bias toward Israel. US allies did not follow the country’s lead, and a year's absence has given authoritarian regimes more power on the world stage. “Instead of dismantling the UNHRC, US...

Trans-Afghan Pipeline Initiative: No Pipe Dream

August 28, 2014
Despite a stream of bad news, development plans are underway even among nations with adversarial relations. Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India signed an agreement in early July to move forward with a 1,700-kilometer natural gas pipeline. “This $7.5 billion project known as TAPI, or the...

Promises Trump Can’t Keep

November 28, 2016
US President-elect Donald Trump made big promises on trade and jobs that will be tough to keep without wrecking key industries along with the global economy. Essentially, he suggested that he could restore US manufacturing jobs by blocking new trade deals like the Tans-Pacific Partnership and...

TPP, China and the Future of Global Trade Order

October 14, 2014
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated by 12 nations, could account for one third of all global trade. But so far, China is not included even though the country is a top trade partner for most of the participants and the world’s leading economy when accounting for purchasing power parity. TPP...
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