COMMENTARIES
COMMENTARIES
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An Open Letter to America's Democratic Presidential Candidates
Michel Rocard Series: The World in Words 2004-01-30Gentlemen, ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17677
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Why Castro Survives
Lydia Chavez Series: Latin America 2004-01-29In a rehearsal studio, a young Cuban ballet dancer turns through the air, pivoting as though some invisible power has unfurled him in an arc. Then, without pause, he leaps once, twice, and I gasp at the height of his grandes jetés and then gasp again because his pointed toe is heading right for a barre . ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17498
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Democracy at Bay
Bronislaw Geremek Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2004-01-28Is the democratic tide reversing? Little more than a decade ago, people spoke of the end of history, of the final, unchallengeable triumph of free markets and democracy. But public opinion in a number of countries now seems to be turning against democracy, argues Bronislaw Geremek, Poland's former foreign minister, and proposes ways in which this trend might be reversed. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17081
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Brazil Breaks Out
Jeffrey D. Sachs Series: Economics and Justice 2004-01-28The biggest hidden story in international development these days may be Brazil's economic takeoff. Two years ago, Brazil's economy was left for dead, and the election of Worker Party candidate Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva as President was widely expected to trigger financial collapse. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 20001
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Is Iraq the Next Afghanistan?
Hassan Mneimneh Series: Islam 2004-01-27At the onset of the US-led war in Iraq, two competing views shaped predictions about the outcome. The first contended that overthrowing Saddam Hussein's regime would usher in a democratic era in Iraq that would serve as a model and catalyst for democratic change regionally. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 13773
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A Tricky Trade Treaty
Yuliya Tymoshenko Series: A Window on Russia 2004-01-27When is a free-trade agreement bad? When the treaty's underlying purpose is neither about trade nor freedom. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 16775
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Capitalism's High Noon
Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi Series: Transatlantic Perspectives 2004-01-26Europe's Enron-induced schadenfreude is kaput. Last year's Vivendi and this year's Parmalat scandals have seen to that. Europe, like America - indeed, like the entire capitalist world - must now become more hawkish in demanding prosecution and punishment of bosses who loot their companies. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 15970
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Is America an Empire?
Joseph S. Nye Series: Of Might and Right 2004-01-26Three decades ago, the radical left used the term "American empire" as an epithet. Now that same term has come out of the closet: analysts on both the left and right now use it to explain - if not guide - American foreign policy. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 56801
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Taiwan's Democratic Taunts
Chien-min Chao Series: China World 2004-01-22Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's recent call for a law enabling popular referendums quickly turned into an international crisis. China, fearing that the law could be used to move Taiwan towards independence, reacted strongly even before the referendum bill was approved by the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's parliament. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 13005
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Wild about Risk
Robert J. Shiller Series: Finance in the 21st Century 2004-01-22Most people do not feel the same impulse to go out and buy insurance, or diversify their investments, as they do to buy a sofa or new clothes. They should, but they don't. Insurance, investment, and banking institutions have historically had to fight an uphill battle to get individuals, businesses, and government to pay for risk management. Their successes, while impressive, remain incomplete: people still have difficulty facing the inherent risks and uncertainties about their economic future. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 19891
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The New Face of Fascism
Jiří Pehe Series: The World in Words 2004-01-21Extreme-right and post-fascist parties, whose rising popularity caused alarm across Western Europe a few years ago, seem to be fading from the electoral scene. But does this mean that political radicalism, extreme-right sentiments, and fascism in Europe are dying out? ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 19143
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Sustainable Medicine
Daniel Callahan Series: Health and Medicine 2004-01-20There is hardly a developed country where health care reform has not become a kind of chronic disease of modern medicine: as soon as some reforms are implemented, a call comes for yet another round. Costs continue to climb, but nothing seems to contain their growth for very long. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 21695
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Ending International Occupation
Sotiraq Hroni Series: Human Rights 2004-01-20To state the obvious, military/political occupations and international oversight of a country are never welcome to the people who are being occupied and/or overseen. For a while, they grin and bear it, sometimes recognizing the necessity of the loss of sovereignty that they are enduring. But their tolerance inevitably fades - and fast. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 15483
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The Richest Get Richer
J. Bradford DeLong Series: Anatomy of the Global Economy 2004-01-19Card-carrying neo-liberals like me, who pushed for opening capital flows wide in the early 1990's, had a particular vision in mind. But the future that we hoped for did not come to pass. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 21681
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Reforming Employment Protection
Olivier Blanchard Series: European Economies 2004-01-16There may be no labor market institution more controversial than employment protection regulation--the complex set of laws and procedures that govern how firms hire and fire workers. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 19878
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Democracy Without Democrats
Ralf Dahrendorf Series: Against the Current 2004-01-16The philosopher Karl Popper had ample reason to propose a precise definition of democracy. Democracy, he said, is a means to remove those in power without bloodshed. Popper's preferred method, of course, was the ballot box. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 25405
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Ending the Islamic Democracy Deficit
Richard N. Haass Series: The World in Words 2004-01-16Despite encouraging signs, it is impossible to ignore a "democracy deficit" in the Muslim world, especially the Arab part of it. Only one of every four countries with Muslim majorities has a democratically elected government. Worse yet, the gap between Muslim countries and the rest of the world is widening. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 20295
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Europe's Dollar Envy
Harold James Series: Frontiers of Growth 2004-01-14Currencies can become the focus not just for commercial transactions, but for diplomatic and political wrangles. When this happens, commercial transactions become more difficult and subject to greater uncertainty. The politicization of money during the interwar depression was economically devastating. But there have been more recent occurrences of nasty currency wars. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17790
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Making Peace Between Darwinism and Christianity
Michael Ruse Series: Science and Society 2004-01-08Are science and religion fated to mutual enmity? Every schoolchild learns how Galileo was forced to his knees to recant his belief that the earth revolves around the sun, or how the Church was up in arms again in 1859, when Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species , arguing that all living organisms, including humans, result from a long, slow process of evolution. Today, especially in America, many Christians, so-called Creationists, still argue that mankind's origins are to be found in the early chapters of Genesis, not in any scientific discovery. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 21407
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America Should Not Lower the Nuclear Threshold
Dianne Feinstein Series: The World in Words 2004-01-06President Bush has pushed stopping the spread of nuclear weapons to the top of the international agenda. Ironic, then, that America's nuclear weapons development program may promote the very proliferation it seeks to prevent, as US Senator Dianne Feinstein explains. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17274
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Fear and Loathing in Russia and Georgia
Felix Stanevsky Series: A Window on Russia 2004-01-03Mikhail Saakashvili's victory in Georgia's presidential election was the predictable culmination of November's "Revolution of the Roses," which forced Eduard Shevardnadze to step down after more than a decade in power. A more complicated question is what Georgia's northern neighbor, Russia, should expect from the new power triumvirate of Saakashvili, Nino Burdzhanadze, and Zurab Zhvania. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 15586
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How the French Plunder Africa
Sanou Mbaye Series: Into Africa 2004-01-02France's unchallenged political, economic, and military domination of its former sub-Saharan African colonies is rooted in a currency, the CFA franc. Created in 1948 to help France control the destiny of its colonies, fourteen countries--Benin, Burkina-Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Bissau Guinea, and Chad--maintained the franc zone even after they gained independence decades ago. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 34527
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Cheap Talk in Kashmir
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri Series: The Asian Century 2004-01-01After two years of off-and-on nuclear brinkmanship, India and Pakistan are once again talking about how to settle their differences rather than issuing threats and rattling nuclear sabers. But do the talks now underway have any better chance of success than the countless failed negotiations that have marked the past fifty years? ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 16230
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Globalization and Its Discontents in 2004
Joseph E. Stiglitz Series: Unconventional Economic Wisdom 2004-01-01The year 2003 was in many ways a disaster for globalization. America and its "coalition" of the willing went to war in Iraq without the support of the UN, and the World Trade Organization meeting at Cancun--which was supposed to provide the impetus for a successful conclusion of the Development Round of trade negotiations--ended in failure. 2004 will almost surely be better, for political globalization as well as for the global economy. But don't look for a banner year. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 23342
