2,000. The United States spends nearly $2,000 a person on defense and accounts for over 40 percent of global military expenditure. Yesterday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released its annual yearbook on arms and international security. Worldwide defense spending reached $1.46 trillion in 2008, up four percent from 2007 and 45 percent since 1999. […]
North Korea officials sentenced American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years of hard labor on Monday. The women were working for Current TV along the China-North Korea border when they were taken by North Korean government officials. They have been in jail since March. Numerous journalist advocacy organizations have called for their […]
Kaing Guek Eav, the leader at the notorious S-21 prison for the Khmer Rouge regime known simply as Duch, told a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal Monday that the children of inmates were murdered to keep them silent. “When children arrived at the center I gave the order to kill them because we were afraid those […]
This post is not about foreign policy, it’s about business, but it’s still about the U.S. role in the world. My question today is: Do American companies have a responsibility to be representatives of American values when they operate internationally? This question has often been posed in relation to pollution and environmental protection, labor practices, […]
Project Better Place is coming along nicely. These are the folks who could catalyze the quest for the electric car’s full penetration into all the world’s markets. I love this stuff – see Future Car for instance. Here’s an eye-opening interview with Shai Agassi, PBP’s founder. I mean, how cool is this?!
The consulting and market research company Point Carbon predicts that “Phase 3 of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme [from 2013] (EU ETS) could see the price of an EU Allowance rise from €30/ton in 2013 to €40/t in 2016.” ETS allowances fell to nearly €8/t this year and have recovered slightly since. Firms sold […]
China’s burgeoning economic growth over the past several decades has been concentrated in the east. Western China is relatively poor and inaccessible and a large proportion of ethnic minorities reside in Tibet, Xinjiang and other western areas. Two recent articles in The New York Times highlight China’s west. Last week, an English version of a […]
Foreign policy is surprisingly becoming a large factor in Iran’s upcoming presidential elections. Iranians go to the polls on Friday and will choose among the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his three challengers. Former prime minister Mir Hussein Moussavi is perceived to be Mr. Ahmadinejad’s strongest opponent. Last week, in a nationally televised debate Mr. […]
Brazil is looking better than Russia these days. Its economy is more market-oriented and better structured. Its exports are much more diversified. Its domestic market is stronger, as are its banks.
Are new forms of authoritarian governments undermining democracy within and beyond their borders? Are geopolitically important countries – including China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Venezuela – challenging democratic development and threatening the emergence of an international order based on open societies and human rights? A new report by Freedom House, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and […]
If you hadn’t guessed, I love looking at the arcane world of politics inside the Beltway and elsewhere. There’s a really readable article in this week’s “NY Times” magazine by the perspicacious Matt Bai. It’s about the politics of health care reform but you could transpose energy and climate change into what’s being said. There’s […]
“From here on, the primary judgment of all human institutions, professions, programs and activities will be determined by the extent to which they inhibit, ignore or foster a mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship.” This is what Thomas Berry said in an interview a few years back, as quoted in his recent “NY Times” obituary. Berry was […]
Oil prices rose yesterday as Goldman Sachs stated it expects prices to reach $85 by the end of the year from its current level just below $70. Its analysts believe the recent price increase is the first stage of a longer sustained rally. They are right to see oil price rise over the long-term as […]
A new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the U.S. is overpaying for the purchasing and delivery of food aid that it donates to those in need, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Despite being the largest overall donor of food aid, the practice of buying food products from U.S. […]
Voting for the European Parliament began today in Britain and the Netherlands. Over the next four days, more than 375 million people in 27 countries are eligible to cast a ballot. Despite the importance of the parliament, most analysts fear turnout will be low. Voting numbers have fallen as the European Union has expanded and […]