MOST RECENT COMMENTARIES
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More Unequal than Others
Pranab Bardhan Series: Frontiers of Growth 2011-12-01In India and the US, many forms of social inequality have declined in recent years, but economic inequality has been on the rise. If both countries wish to thrive as democracies, they must find a way to make the rich feel that it is in their best interests to improve conditions for the poor.... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 0 Read: 1807
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Egypt’s Revolutionary Coup
Shlomo Ben-Ami Series: War and Peace 2011-12-01
The Arab Spring was never expected to be a linear process, or a Middle Eastern version of Central Europe’s non-violent democratic revolutions in 1989. Egypt, where the military's hijacking of the revolution has reignited mass protest, is a case in point.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 1143
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Toward a Peaceful Pacific
Malcolm Fraser Series: The Asian Century 2011-12-01Across the Asia-Pacific region, China's influence is rising, while the US continues to dominate militarily. It is difficult to predict how America’s role in the region will evolve, but both sides should pursue diplomatic efforts to minimize Sino-American rivalry and avoid embarking on a new cold war.... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 899
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Deadlock in Durban
Jagdish Bhagwati Series: The Open Economy and Its Enemies 2011-11-30
The 17th conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, popularly known as COP-17, is taking place in Durban, South Africa at a critical moment, as the historic 1997 Kyoto Protocol is set to expire next year. But, like the last two climate-change conferences, COP-17 can be expected to spend much and produce little.... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 2700
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The 70% Solution
J. Bradford DeLong Series: Anatomy of the Global Economy 2011-11-30Today's super rich command and control over resources that they are effectively satiated. So, when we calculate what their tax rate should be, we should not consider the effect on their happiness, but rather on the well-being of everyone else.... read Comments: 13 Recommended: 0 Read: 10425
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Iran’s Rattling Saber
Mehdi Khalaji Series: Islam 2011-11-30
As the West ratchets up its economic pressure on Iran to halt its drive to develop nuclear weapons, the Islamic Republic’s rulers are not sitting idly by. Since Iran lacks the soft power and the economic capacity to counter Western pressure, its leaders will resort to threats, and even to force, as the recent attack on the British embassy in Tehran shows.... read Comments: 4 Recommended: 0 Read: 2394
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A Democratic Burma?
Yuriko Koike Series: Asia Watch 2011-11-30TOKYO – Historic transformations often happen when least expected. Mikhail Gorbachev’s liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union emerged at one of the Cold War’s darkest hours, with US President Ronald Reagan pushing for strategic missile defense and the two sides fighting proxy wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Deng Xiaoping’s economic opening followed China’s bloody – and failed – invasion of Vietnam in 1978. And South Africa’s last apartheid leader, F. W. de Klerk, was initially perceived as just another apologist for the system – hardly the man to free Nelson Mandela and oversee the end of white minority rule.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 1941
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China, Inc. Goes Global
Karl P. Sauvant Series: China World 2011-11-30
China’s economy is now taking its next great leap forward: with labor costs rising and the renminbi appreciating, parts of its manufacturing sector are now moving up the value-added chain and out of the country. The China challenge is now a global one.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 3606
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Climate Justice
Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson Series: The World in Words 2011-11-30Climate change is a matter of justice: the richest countries caused the problem, but it is the world’s poorest who are already suffering from its effects. At the climate-change summit now taking place in Durban, South Africa, the international community must commit to righting that wrong.... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 0 Read: 2239
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The American Hangover
Naomi Wolf Series: The Next Wave 2011-11-30
Americans have lost their faith in those who, in the boom times, purred, “Trust us.” The new American dream – a flock of chickens and a jar of pickles – represents the insight that the only people whom Americans can trust in a crisis are themselves.... read Comments: 3 Recommended: 0 Read: 4863
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Europe is Not the United States
Martin Feldstein Series: The Magic of the Market 2011-11-29A key argument made by European officials and other defenders of the euro has been that, because a single currency works well in the US, it should work well in Europe as well. But, while both are large, continental, and diverse economies, the similarities end there.... read Comments: 7 Recommended: 0 Read: 13505
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A Shift from the Middle East to the Pacific
Christopher Hill Series: America in a New World 2011-11-29
The US is winding up wars in Southwest Asia and turning its attention to its more important relationships in East Asia and the Pacific. But balancing responsible drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan with a responsible buildup of activities in East Asia requires dispelling fears that the US is gearing up to confront China.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 4280
| The Forgotten Twentieth-Century | Jan-Werner Mueller 
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| The China Bears’ Feeble Growl | Yu Yongding
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