Aid and Development Archive

BEIJING — The 16th Asian Games, now underway in Guangzhou, China, are the latest in a long line of massive, intensively promoted “mega-events” organized by the Chinese state to showcase national development and achievement. These mega-events have few proven grassroots benefits, however, and are no replacement for the substantive, fundamental reforms the Chinese government itself admits are necessary to modernize the country. Moreover, this obsession with mega-events may be damaging to long-term development, and ultimately risks widening the gulf between the experiences of ordinary Chinese and the flag-waving, mixed-market utopia portrayed in state propaganda. Since May 2008, eight distinct events […]

It was all smiles and friendly talk of brotherhood and shared destiny at the presidential palace in Caracas yesterday, as the leaders of Colombia and Venezuela met to reaffirm their commitment to fully restore diplomatic ties and put recent bitter disputes behind them. The two neighboring Andean nations began work to restore broken relations shortly after Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August. “We are determined that no one or anything will derail us,” said Santos during his second meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez since August. “We’ve gone from good-intentioned statements to concrete accords,” he added. The […]

The room came to order. The negotiators, some still exasperated by the day’s events, sat anxiously awaiting the final results. “Congratulations, delegates,” the moderator announced. “You have negotiated a comprehensive successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.” The delegates erupted in deafening applause, screams of joy and relieved laughter. No, these were not real-life climate-change negotiators. In August, we designed and ran a daylong scenario to simulate the international climate-change negotiations that will launch in Cancun, Mexico, on Nov. 29. Our goals were to gain a sense of how events may play out in Cancun when the real international negotiators meet […]

With elections underway or imminent in Ivory Coast, Niger, Tanzania and Guinea, Africa seems to be entering a season of democracy. But it follows a year that saw democratic governments and processes take a hit across the continent. Meanwhile, U.N. peacekeepers have struggled to contain violence in eastern Congo, tensions are rising in Sudan in anticipation of January’s referendum on Southern Sudan’s independence, and power-sharing agreements are being tested in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Hovering in the background, the continent’s regional power, South Africa, struggles to realize the promise of its post-apartheid potential. World Politics Review offers a closer look at […]