Economics & Business Archive

ABOARD THE U.S.S. NASHVILLE — In his civilian clothes, Dr. Augustus Vogel stood out among the khaki, green and blue uniforms of Nashville’s military crew. As the U.S. Navy’s science liaison for the amphibious ship’s six-month “smart power” mission delivering training, humanitarian and scientific assistance to six West African nations, Vogel’s responsibilities were as unusual as his dress. On April 17, Vogel sat down in the vessel’s plush officer’s lounge to confer with a small team of diplomats and naval officers. The topic of their hour-long discussion: fish — and the catching thereof — in the bustling, anarchic Gulf of […]

The international spotlight might be focused on the Obama administration’s efforts to change the tone of its dealings with Iran. But while global attention concentrates on the new U.S. approach, Iran’s regional relations with countries in the Middle East and beyond are undergoing a dramatic transformation, with repercussions that reach across the globe. A growing number of Arab countries have engaged in open diplomatic confrontation with Tehran. To compensate for the loss of friends in its own neighborhood, Iran has increasingly forged ties with leftist governments in Latin America, using its growing presence there to find novel ways to help […]

Recent reports of a nuclear power station being built in Albania with Croatian assistance generated about as much heat as they did light. Two weeks ago, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serb newspapers all reported — without naming their source — that the governments of Albania and Croatia had agreed to build a 1,500-megawatt power station near lake Skadar, which is divided between Montenegro and Albania. The cost of the project, they said, would be around €5 billion. But the reports are untrue, according to Tomislav Mazal, an adviser to Croatia’s head negotiator on the issue, Vice Prime Minister Damir Polancec. “We […]

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa resoundingly won re-election with an unprecedented first-round victory in Sunday’s elections. Running on the Alianza PAÍS (Country Alliance) ticket, Correa took an estimated 54 percent of the vote. His closest challenger, Lucio Gutiérrez, finished with an estimated 31 percent. Under new electoral rules, a candidate needs either more than 50 percent of the vote, or more than 40 percent with a 10 percent margin over the second-place candidate, to avoid a run-off election. Exit polls also gave Correa a majority — if slimmer than the one he currently enjoys — in the Legislative […]

IQUITOS, Peru — JUSTICE FLOWED SMOOTHLY FOR FUJIMORI: Here in northern Peru, the compact, luxury cruise ship Aqua glides through the brown waters of the Amazon River, escorted by pink dolphins and serenaded from the surrounding rain forest by birdsong and chattering monkeys. Because this is the high-water season, the typical shoreline lies up to 35 feet below the fast-flowing river surface. While other parts of the globe safeguard every drop of their precious water resources, the Amazon will have discharged millions of tons of fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean by June, as it does every year. Deep in […]

As an IMF note to the G-20 leaders gathered at the recent London summit put it, “Growth also plunged across a broad swath of emerging economies. Against this backdrop, global activity is expected to contract in 2009 for the first time in 60 years.” In 1998, the Asian financial crisis left a lasting mark on politics in Southeast Asia. The Suharto regime fell in Indonesia and, arguably, ongoing turmoil in Malaysia and Thailand can be traced to the impact of ’98. However, this time around, the region is expected to come through the current recession relatively unscathed, in comparison with […]

As the IMF and the Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee meet in Washington this weekend, they will undoubtedly be discussing what most Americans are only dimly aware of: The recession is a global national security problem. The American people must understand that the economic crisis will be manifested not only in lost jobs and incomes — it will be felt in enhanced dangers to U.S. national security and homeland security. In February, Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis C. Blair told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence the top national security threat facing the U.S. is the economic crisis. “Besides […]

The most publicized image manipulation during President Barack Obama’s recent world travels involved Hugo Chávez, who managed to get a front-page handshake with his North American counterpart and later launched an anti-American book to the top of the best-seller list by theatrically handing it to Obama before the cameras. But the most wounding moment came earlier, during the G-20 summit in London, when Obama — perhaps unintentionally — snubbed the President of Argentina. During the gathering of world leaders, Obama walked in the Argentine’s direction, offering a wide smile and an outstretched hand in preparation for a handshake. President Cristina […]

One local candidate is comparing his crime-fighting abilities to Batman’s. A would-be president has promised to raise the minimum wage to $77, because seven is a good number. And the government’s “revolutionary” version of the Beatle’s song “Hey Jude” has incurred the wrath of the copyright administrators. Yet if Ecuador’s election season seems strange, it pales in comparison to the chaos that went before. Seven presidents in the decade following 1997. Three leaders overthrown. A banking and currency collapse. This was Latin America’s basket case. Today political stability has been restored, thanks in large part to one president’s popularity. Rafael […]

Several analysts have noted that China is leveraging the global financial crisis to increase its economic clout — for example, by going on a commodities “shopping spree,” contributing $40 billion to the International Monetary Fund at the G-20 summit, and pushing for a greater voice in reforming international economic institutions. Recent developments, however, suggest that it is going further. China is using the crisis to step back and consider how it can rise in a more sustainable manner. That move is borne not only of its desire to be a world power, but also of its recognition that its strategy […]

NEW DELHI — A shift in India’s strategic defense thinking has become increasingly apparent over the months following the Mumbai terror attack in November. Before the Mumbai attacks, India’s military infrastructure was predominantly oriented to building against a long-term threat from China, aided by some plodding from a U.S. keen to counter Beijing’s rise in the region. Post-11/26, however, there is every sign that India’s defense preparedness is more focused on the immediate threat from Pakistan. India’s massive $50 billion defense modernization plans are being tweaked accordingly. Indian intelligence agencies have warned that a conflict situation with Pakistan could arise […]

From the Atlantic’s Sage Stossel, this is pretty funny.

Roughly 47 years after having banned Cuba from the Organizationof American States, Latin American leaders are angling to reinstate theisland nation, despite the fact that it lacks the democraticcredentials spelled out in the OAS charter. The effort is aprominent storyline heading into the April 17-19 Summit of the Americasin Trinidad and Tobago, where 34 leaders from the hemisphere will meetto discuss the global economic crisis, energy policy and securityissues, among other things. But the meeting’s narrative also includesPresident Barack Obama’s first opportunity to redefine U.S.-LatinAmerican relations, which took a backseat under former President GeorgeW. Bush. “The perception coming up from […]

The tiny desert town of Abeche, in eastern Chad, offers a curious sight: Sandwiched between the mud huts that most people call home and the compounds belonging to international aid workers is a humble Chinese restaurant catering to Chad’s growing population of Chinese engineers and managers. Significantly, no equivalent American-style restaurant is to be found. The same holds true across the resource-rich, institution-poor developing world, in countries as remote as East Timor and as dangerous as Somalia. While much of the military establishment in Washington continues to plan for a possible conventional war with China, Beijing is studiously avoiding a […]

Delegations from across the Western Hemisphere will descend upon the twin island Caribbean nation of Trinidad & Tobago this week for the fifth Summit of the Americas. A hemispheric agenda on energy figures prominently among the issues they will be addressing. For months, the summit offered the hope of a new, more positive, approach to coordinated regional energy policy. But the array of financial challenges facing the global economy has since divided the attention of policymakers. Now, prospects for comprehensive dialogue on energy security in the Americas can only be described as diminished. There is still a chance for the […]

Up until now I have avoided addressing the issue of piracy off the coast of East Africa. I’ve done this both because it’s not a personal area of focus, and because the coverage of the issue, both in the mainstream media and the blogosphere, has been extremely heavy – arguably heavier than the issue merits. I’m not saying that the disruption of a major strategic waterway doesn’t matter. It does. Still, compared with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a global financial and economic crisis, the creeping disaster of climate change and nuclear proliferation, this is a second-tier problem getting first-tier […]

Joe Hung has an interesting piece in the China Post about the possibility that Japan, spurred by recent provocations from North Korea as well as a desire to inject fiscal stimulus into its flagging economy, might begin throwing off some of the chains that constrain its military development. The piece is heavy with baggage from the era of Japanese expansion during the Depression and Second World War, and as such strikes a bit of a discordant note to Western ears; however, the political and economic discourse of this economic crisis has been heavy with references to the experiences of the […]