Berlin – Just before Christmas, Serbia’s government formally submitted its application for European Union membership. A few days earlier, v…

NEW YORK – Continued discrimination against Roma in Europe not only violates human dignity, but is a major social problem crippling the dev…

Sydney – The appointment of five provincial-level Chinese Communist Party chiefs in early December is a reminder that the ascension of China…

Moscow – Westerners often see Russian politics in terms of a high-level struggle between liberals and conservatives: Ligachev and Yakovlev …

As the world struggles to emerge from the economic near-collapse of last fall, there is one sub-group that has slid below the waterline in r…

BERKELEY – Perhaps the best way to view a financial crisis is to look at it as a collapse in the risk tolerance of investors in private fin…

London – The British comic genius Spike Milligan once observed that he would love to have the opportunity to discover that money wouldn’t ma…

LONDON – This is a tough time to be a decision-maker. We live in an era of low predictability. The world appears in constant flux. The cha…

CAMBRIDGE – As I walked through the airport in Dubai recently, I was struck by the large number of travelers who were buying gold coins. The…

NEW YORK – Sadness is one of the small number of human emotions that have been recognized in all societies and in all time periods. Some of …

LONDON – The role played by Libyan ruler Muammar al-Qaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, in gaining the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset …

MUNICH – Once upon a time, stocks were risky and collateralized securities were safe. That time is over, as the breakdown of the American m…

MOSCOW – Rapid changes in the global economy and international politics are raising, once more, an eternal issue in Russia: the country’s r…

FARAH , AFGHANISTAN – When the problems riddling Afghan society are listed – violence, insecurity, corruption, religious fundamentalism – …

SHANGHAI – Back in 1958, the year of China’s ill-fated “Great Leap Forward,” Chairman Mao had big plans for the steel industry. While produc…

The plot of the morality play set in motion by the United Kingdom’s announcement of a 50% tax on bankers’ bonuses has now taken form. And it…

BERKELEY – On January 1, South Korea takes over the G-20 chairmanship from the United Kingdom. Korea is not the first emerging market to ch…

MILAN – Investors have been hit hard by the current crisis. Lessons are being learned and investment strategies revised. The central lesso…

New York – Two years of climate change negotiations have now ended in a farce in Copenhagen. Rather than grappling with complex issues, Pre…

CAMBRIDGE – As governments around the world develop policies to deal with failing financial institutions, they should be sure to pick their …

LONDON – From next year, on swearing allegiance to the Queen, all members of Britain’s House of Lords – and I am one of them – will be requi…

BRUSSELS – Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the contours of world order are still in the making…

MEXICO CITY – Three years ago this month, Mexican President Felipe Calderón donned military fatigues and declared a full-scale war on drugs…

SAN FRANCISCO – Last week, I wrote a 140-character hotel review on Twitter: “Galleria Park Hotel SF rejects noise complaint from ill-traine…

NEW YORK – Nicolae Ceausescu liked to hunt bear. With his retinue, he would retreat to a lodge in Transylvania and sally forth, locked and l…