With enduring protests in Egypt and beyond, global and regional powers realize new polices are required for the Middle East. Israel is alarmed that a major ally is under siege by its own people. President Hosni Mubarak delayed reforms, advising the international community that Egypt’s governance...
Click here for the article in The New York Times.
The flipside of the myriad benefits enjoyed by economically developed countries is a general decrease in birth rates. When fewer children are born, a dwindling working class must support the elderly population’s increasing healthcare costs while maintaining economic output. Singapore is combating...
SINGAPORE) The baby plan announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday could cost the government more than $100 million a year. But the eventual cost of not raising the birth rate could be much higher,...
Globalization has contributed to a decline in manufacturing cities like Detroit, forcing firms to confront foreign competitors. Other cities, like New York, reap benefits from globalization, argues Harvard professor Edward Glaeser. New York City thrives on producing ideas, and globalization spurs...
If the world is so flat, then why are people willing to pay so much to be in New York? Since we can telecommute from the Ozarks to Azerbaijan, shouldn't one spot on earth be as good as another? Yet as the world has...
After invading Iraq in 2003, the United States struggled to repair the bitter Shia-Sunni divide and install a system of governance more stable than that of brutal dictator Saddam Hussein. After US troops withdrew in 2011, a relatively small group of militants fighting in Syria took advantage of a...
Click here for the article in The Guardian.The New York Times offers a graphic display of how ISIS came to control large sections of Syria and Iraq.
Europe's crisis over the ideal constitution for the EU stems from fundamental differences between contending countries, says Bundestag official Wolfgang Schauble. France and Germany's belief in the right of majority rule is their justification for insisting on having their way on certain...
The current crisis within the European Union is marked by the failure of the proposed constitution and continuing acrimony over the breach of the stability pact. But these difficulties have deeper roots in the clash of...
Though the US has made an effort to keep the security issues of North Korea and Iraq separate, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun views them as connected. President Roh hesitates to deploy any troops to the Middle East, thus sending an "indirect message" to the US to consider the non-...
President Roh Moo-hyun again stressed yesterday that the peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue is "a very important factor" in deciding whether to send additional troops to Iraq.
"In...
The US and EU initiated a new round of closed discussions on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a free trade agreement, with much of the content still kept top secret. However, the EU position on raw materials and energy was leaked in May, and the deal could eliminate restrictions...
Click here for the article in Other Words.
Chinese government officials recently ordered a stop to publication of “The China Development Brief.” This newsletter, read by many NGO representatives around the country, covers a range of human-rights topics, from AIDS to environmental issues. Founding editor, Nicholas Young, reports that his...
HONG KONG -- A widely read newsletter on Chinese development and human-rights issues has been shuttered after more than a decade by public security officials, according to the newsletter's founder, amid what observers...