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Benjamin J. Cohen

Benjamin J. Cohen

14 commentaries

Benjamin J. Cohen, Professor of International Political Economy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author, most recently, of Currency Statecraft: Monetary Rivalry and Geopolitical Ambition.

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  1. buruma171_Aung Kyaw HtetSOPA ImagesLightRocket via Getty Images_protest myanmar Aung Kyaw Htet/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

    Asian Demonstrators and the American Dream

    Ian Buruma

    Protesters against the military coup in Myanmar hope for a US intervention, showing that America’s image as the champion of global freedom is not yet dead, even after four years of Donald Trump’s “America First” isolationism. But the US was always a selective supporter of democracy, and now it is a diminished one. 

     explains why pro-democracy protesters who place their hopes in the US are bound to be disappointed.
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  3. hausmann93_YURI CORTEZAFP via Getty Images_maduro venezuela Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images

    What Should Biden Do About Venezuela?

    Ricardo Hausmann & José Ramon Morales-Arilla

    Former US President Donald Trump's policy of maximum pressure on the Venezuelan dictatorship failed to dislodge the regime or alleviate the humanitarian crisis. If Joe Biden is to succeed, he will need a policy that makes life as burdensome as possible for the elite and as bearable and democratic as possible for ordinary Venezuelans. 

     warn that negotiations without sanctions, as some advocate, is a strategy that leads nowhere.
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  4. gswood1_FotosearchGetty Images_white house jackson Fotosearch/Getty Images

    The Second Jacksonian Age

    Gordon S. Wood

    The Jacksonian era in antebellum America was, like our own age, a time of extreme democratization and rampant anti-elitism. Now, too, the democratization of knowledge and truth can produce an odd mixture of credulity and skepticism among many ordinary Americans. 

     highlights the striking similarities between the current political era and an earlier “epoch of the hoax.”
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  5. aouattara1_ISSOUF SANOGOAFP via Getty Images_Ivory coast election Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images

    A Test for Ivory Coast’s Democracy

    Alassane Ouattara

    Public trust in politicians – essential to individual freedom and collective development – depends on free, fair, and transparent elections. Fortunately, the Ivorian government has worked hard to ensure that the parliamentary election on March 6 is a democratic success. 

     is confident that the upcoming parliamentary election will reinforce his country's recent progress.
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  6. bp_inflation_20th Century FoxArchive PhotosGetty Images_young frankenstein it's alive 20th Century Fox/Archive Photos/Getty Images

    Is Inflation Alive?

    Huge fiscal and monetary stimulus programs have sparked a growing debate about whether advanced economies may sooner or later experience the sort of rapid price growth last seen a generation ago. While stimulus advocates point to current weak demand and the public’s deeply ingrained low-inflation expectations, anxious hawks fear that a new and dangerous global inflationary consensus may be taking hold.

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