Economics & Business Archive

KIGALI, Rwanda — On a Thursday afternoon in February, a plot worthy of a Hollywood script unfolded in Goma, the freewheeling provincial capital that clings to the eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Starring a high-profile Congolese fugitive, a cadre of foreign businessmen and a U.S.-registered Gulfstream jet, the tale featured a car chase that resulted in the seizure of $6.8 million in cash and a dramatic runway arrest that netted a half-ton of gold. Four foreign nationals — including a Frenchman, two Nigerians and a Houston-based diamond dealer — are now awaiting trial in the Congolese capital, […]

Russia and India recently announced that they are cooperating on developing joint liquefied natural gas projects. In an email interview, Jörg Himmelreich, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, discussed energy relations between Russia and India. WPR: Historically, what has been the energy relationship between Russia and India? Jörg Himmelreich: India and Russia have a formal strategic partnership dating back to the Cold War, when they were each other’s single most important partner. Even after the demise of the Soviet Union, they enjoyed traditionally good relations, although the resulting fundamental shift in the global order […]

KAMPALA, Uganda — With an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil sitting beneath its Lake Albert, Uganda boasts the largest reserves among a number of African countries whose recent discoveries of petroleum have swelled the ranks of the continent’s oil-possessing states. But it took a recently signed agreement resolving a tax dispute between the government of President Yoweri Museveni on one side and two companies — Tullow Oil and its former partner, Heritage Oil — on the other to open the door for an estimated $10 billion of investment in the country. By the terms of the agreement, announced Feb. […]

India and the European Union have reportedly hit a snag in their long-running negotiations over a free trade agreement, hoped to boost bilateral trade by nearly $30 billion. Initially slated for signature in early April, the agreement now appears to have been postponed until 2012. One of the key sticking points in the negotiations is a proposal to enhance intellectual property protections for medicine. India has a thriving generic drug industry. It did not allow patents on pharmaceutical products until 2005, when it adapted its laws to conform with the World Trade Organization’s intellectual property rules. Products produced prior to […]

Kazakhstan’s oil and gas reserves, as well as its pivotal location, make it of strategic importance to the United States and its allies. But in the run-up to Kazakhstan’s presidential election later this week, the country’s contested democratic practices and uncertain transition to the next generation of political leaders leaves its future unclear. Unfortunately, due to Washington’s preoccupation with the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan, both Kazakhstan and its upcoming election run the risk of being largely overlooked. Last month, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev rejected the idea of using a national referendum to extend his term until 2020, despite […]

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited Egypt earlier this month, the first head of state to do so following the Egyptian revolution. In an email interview, Jacob Høigilt, a Middle East researcher at the Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies, discussed Egypt-Sudan relations. WPR: What was the state of Egypt-Sudan relations prior to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak? Jacob Høigilt: Relations were highly ambiguous during the Mubarak era. Historically, Egypt and Sudan have enjoyed a close relationship. There has been much movement of people across the borders, and both governments have supported each other against the other Nile Basin countries in […]

While many in the West fret over the challenge of “rebalancing” the global economy after the recent global financial crisis, several trends suggest that the field of supply chain management could offer a key advantage for an America eager to double its exports by 2014. On the surface, supply chain management might not sound too sexy, but understand this: In today’s globalization, neither companies nor countries compete — supply chains do. Companies like Wal-Mart have known this for some time. Thus, positioning America to be the world’s pre-eminent provider of secure, transparent and efficient supply chains will ensure that our […]

India and Taiwan recently began the process of considering a free trade agreement. In an email interview, Mukul G. Asher, discussed India-Taiwan economic relations. WPR: What is the extent of Taiwan-India trade relations? Mukul G. Asher: In 2010, the bilateral merchandise trade between India and Taiwan was valued at $6.5 billion, making India Taiwan’s 16th-ranked global trade partner and accounting for only 1.2 percent of Taiwan’s and 1.6 percent of India’s global trade. The balance of trade is in Taiwan’s favor by $800 million. Data for trade in services are not published on a bilateral basis. WPR: What is driving […]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff issued a blunt challenge to President Barack Obama when he arrived in Brazil to kick off his first visit to Latin America this past week: no more “empty rhetoric” about partnership between her country and the United States. Whether Washington can meet this standard, however, remains to be seen. Certainly, during this visit, no major initiatives were unveiled; no dramatic vision of a future U.S.-Brazilian entente was presented; and no grand gesture — such as a compromise on the thorny trade issues that continue to hamper commercial ties between the two countries — was magnanimously offered […]

A number of attempts to create alternatives to the U.S. Global Positioning System are underway. Russia is close to completing its GLONASS system, which India plans to join, while China is working on developing its own system. In an email interview, Charles Vick, senior technical and policy analyst for GlobalSecurity.org, discussed global satellite navigation systems. WPR: What countries are currently pursuing a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) capability and what is the status of their programs? Charles Vick: The Global Positioning System (GPS), the global navigation system developed by the U.S., remains the primary system used by both the military […]

Portugal’s failure to pass an austerity plan and slash its budget deficit led Prime Minister Jose Socrates to resign yesterday and appears to put the country on an accelerated track toward a European Union-funded bailout package. Concerns are rising that this could lead to a bailout “domino effect,” with the Los Angeles Times reporting that “if Portugal needs a bailout, investors may begin to bet that struggling Spain will follow.” A wider question involves Europe’s ability to sustain so many bailouts in the long term. But the EU may not have much choice, according to World Politics Review contributor Daniel […]

Brazil and India recently signed an agreement to improve air travel between the two countries, the latest small step in a broad bilateral relationship. In an email interview, Oliver Stuenkel, a fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, discussed Brazil-India relations. WPR: What is the state of trade between Brazil and India, including areas of complementarity and competition? Oliver Stuenkel: Trade between Brazil and India has grown significantly since the end of the Cold War, from $400 million in 1999, to $2 billion in 2005, passing $7 billion in 2010. A trade agreement between Mercosur — a regional […]

The diffusion of power in the 21st century from states to nonstate actors has left more and more things outside the control of even the most powerful states. To accomplish their goals, states must do better at leveraging their smart power, which combines the hard power of coercion and payment with the soft power of persuasion and attraction. Doing so will often require wielding power with others rather than over them. What will it mean to wield power in the global information age of the 21st century? What resources will produce power? In the 16th century, control of colonies and […]

One of the most revealing features of today’s international system is that only two nations, America and China, possess sufficient power to truly disrupt it — either directly, through the application of military force, or indirectly, by unleashing an uncontainable economic crisis. In fact, to truly derail globalization in its current trajectory, the two would need to act in concert, either by fighting each other directly or experiencing simultaneous economic collapses. Short of those two scenarios, modern globalization remains highly resilient to shocks of all sorts. That resilience is the only power that really matters in this world. It defines […]

The extent to which events in Libya have overshadowed President Barack Obama’s Latin America tour can’t be overstated. With the U.S. president in El Salvador today after previous stops in Brazil and Chile, there’s a good deal of speculation about why he decided to press forward with the trip rather than reschedule. Many believe the tour is a “move to counteract the rising influence of China, which is in the midst of an unprecendented energy grab in the oil- and mineral-rich region,” according to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, which asserted that “the Chinese yuan is contesting U.S. […]

There is no popular or expert consensus about which actors possess economic power in the 21st century. Public uncertainty is reflected in the April 2010 Pew Global Attitudes survey, which reveals interesting cross-country discontinuities in the perception of power. When asked to identify “the world’s leading economic power,” a majority of respondents in a diverse array of developing countries — including Brazil and India — name the United States. On the other hand, in the developed world, the results look dramatically different, with strong pluralities in five of the original G-7 economies — including the United States, Japan and Germany […]

When it comes to good governance in the information age, transparency has few competitors as the fix du jour. This is especially true when it comes to oil, gas and mining revenue in developing countries, where many people rightly consider transparency an essential first step in curbing government corruption. But the discussions at the “Transparency Counts” conference, held by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Paris earlier this month, strongly suggest that knowing how much money is coming in to government coffers is not enough if that money does not improve people’s lives. Natural resources are hot right now, […]