When Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt instituted a blockade against Qatar this summer, many in Qatar and the broader international community feared it would greatly disrupt Qatari society by breaking supply chains, limiting access to food and other resources, and preventing free travel across the region. However, Qatar has defied the […]
President Obama’s decision to take a five percent pay cut to express solidarity with federal workers affected by the sequester is just one more reminder of the many economic challenges that the United States confronts, some of them a consequence of recent political decisions but others rooted in deeper structural causes. Despite this reality, American […]
Given all the fanciful prognostications about how China is poised to eat America’s lunch, it might sound odd that the country’s new leader, Xi Jinping, is sloganeering about the need for national “rejuvenation” and “revival.” He is, of course, attempting to harness patriotic sentiments in order to boost the Communist Party’s eroding legitimacy. But his […]
The reinvention of the U.S. industrial sector promises far-reaching global consequences Pushing back against the deluge of punditry about America’s strategic eclipse, my last post argued that the U.S. global position is being bolstered greatly by a revolution in domestic energy production that began to take shape in the past few years. Although it has not […]
What James Cameron and SpaceX tell us about the Future of Global Power James Cameron’s solo journey into the ocean’s deepest recesses is being hailed as a tale of personal daring and scientific adventure. But it also holds a lesson relevant to the debate about whether the global hierarchy is being reshuffled and to what […]
The Greek dimension of the EU sovereign debt crisis is by now well known to all. Investor anxiety over excessive national debt throughout the EU led to demands for higher interest rates from several governments with greater debt levels and current account deficits. This in turn made it difficult for some governments to finance further […]
As you may have heard, Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer today. Much will be written about the life and legacy of this amazing man over the next few days and I expect his death will echo and reverberate in our media and social networks for some time because of the way he touched […]
Good old American know-how. Yankee ingenuity. Can-do spirit. You know the phrases, you know the attitude and values they represent, it’s something deep in the core of the American character. But, is it possible that this American character trait can be lost over time? This question was prompted by two things. First, as you know, […]