Economics & Business Archive

Throughout history there have been times when new technology changed how wars were fought, and the politics of war itself, in ways that its early adapters did not anticipate. When fragile flying machines first appeared over the battlefield, who could have foreseen that one day bombers, drones and missiles could strike with such precision and at such range that they would alter the actual role of geography in warfare? Today, another revolutionary technology is emerging with robots, but its implications remain unclear. With the robotic revolution, America’s futurists, military leaders, strategists and policymakers must work hard to cast a light […]

Earlier this month, Italy cooperated with Libyan military commander Gen. Khalifa Haftar to ensure the delivery of 700,000 barrels of oil from eastern Libya, despite the fact that the Italian government officially supports the United Nations-backed national unity government in Tripoli that Haftar opposes. In an email interview, Silvia Colombo, a senior fellow at the Institute of International Affairs, discusses Italy’s policies in North Africa and the Middle East. WPR: Who are Italy’s main partners in North Africa and the Middle East, and to what extent do hydrocarbons drive relations? Silvia Colombo: Italy’s foreign policy has always had a distinct […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, and associate editor, Karina Piser, discuss how to get India-Pakistan ties back on track, the international outrage over Russia’s actions in Syria, and Tanzania’s troubling authoritarian turn. For the Report, Jonathan Rosen talks with Peter Dörrie about Malawi’s struggle for food security. Listen:Download: MP3Subscribe: iTunes | RSS Relevant Articles on WPR: What Will It Take To Get Troubled India-Pakistan Ties Back on Track? International Outrage Won’t Change Russia’s Behavior in Aleppo Magufuli’s Reformist Drive Takes an Autocratic Turn in Tanzania From Drought to Green Revolution? Malawi’s—and Africa’s—Quest for Food […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on a range of countries’ space priorities and programs. Engineers from the University of New South Wales Canberra and the Defense Science and Technology Group announced last week that a new miniature cube satellite called Buccaneer, which will look at ways to better predict the orbits of space objects, is ready to be launched. In an email interview, Brett Biddington, the founder of Biddington Research, a space and cyber policy consulting firm, discusses Australia’s space policy. WPR: What are Australia’s space capabilities, in terms of its domestic public and […]

The $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, which officially opened in late June, tripling the size of vessels the canal can accommodate, is about more than just bigger ships. Unlike in 1914 when the opening of the canal made unimaginable trade routes possible, boosting the economies of the United States and many others, the expanded canal may have the biggest impact on Panama’s own economy. But the potential rewards also come with major risks. The canal’s ability to handle much larger ships will greatly facilitate shipping between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Among other things, U.S. grain exports from […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series inviting authors to identify the biggest priority—whether a threat, risk, opportunity or challenge—facing the international order and U.S. foreign policy today. For the past decade, globalization and anti-globalization perplexingly fell out of favor in the analytical narratives of most commentators on international affairs. The winners and losers of globalization, which defined the major debates about economic policies during the 1990s and early 2000s, simply ceased to be discussed. Perhaps it was because this particular framing was closely tied to debates about the World Trade Organization, protests against it, and […]

Driving along central Malawi’s M5 lakeshore highway in mid-2016, a visitor could be forgiven for mistaking the surrounding countryside for desert. In what should have been an area lush from rains ending in April, the land of gently sloping hills, baobab trees and fiery sunsets was parched. Although the road meandered past some signs of greenery—mango trees, tobacco fields, irrigated sugar cane for export—the dust that stretched to the horizon did little to mask that Malawi, like much of eastern and southern Africa, is in crisis. Hit by the strongest El Nino in a generation, which disrupted rainfall patterns, ruined […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on a range of countries’ space priorities and programs. Brazil’s space agency recently announced plans to develop a microsatellite launch vehicle that would take satellites weighing up to 1 kilogram into orbit. The first test launch is scheduled for late 2018. In an email interview, Robert Harding, the head of the political science department at Valdosta State University, discusses Brazil’s space program. WPR: What are Brazil’s space capabilities, in terms of its domestic public and private space-industrial complex, and who are its major international partners, in terms of space […]

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Although political violence there is limited, Southeast Asia has become one of the tensest regions of the world, with a number of governments moving in authoritarian directions. In Thailand, the death of King Bhumibol, who unified the nation while backing the military junta, raises questions about whether anyone can replace him. The Philippines recently elected a populist authoritarian in Rodrigo Duterte, who is apparently determined to sabotage the country’s longstanding alliance with the United States and whose paramilitaries are executing Filipino citizens in the streets in a vigilante drug war. In Myanmar, power is hopelessly divided between longtime democracy […]

Last month, more than 50 protesters were killed in two days of clashes with security forces in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The protesters had taken to the streets with a clear message: The country’s presidential election must be held as soon as possible, and President Joseph Kabila must step down on Dec. 19 when his term officially expires. Although the city’s authorities had authorized the demonstration, it was violently suppressed by the police and the republican guard. Having lost faith in their government since the rigged 2011 elections when Kabila was controversially re-elected, the […]

The most newsworthy thing about last weekend’s BRICS summit, judging from the dearth of media coverage of the gathering in Goa, India, was its lack of newsworthiness. As recently as last year, the BRICS summit was accompanied by headlines of the challenge the grouping of major emerging economies poses to America’s global position. As a coherent political bloc, the BRICS—made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—was always overblown. Now it seems it has already blown over. To be fair, Sputnik International, the Kremlin-financed Russian propaganda outfit, made a valiant effort this year to highlight the forum’s “expanding […]

Bolivia was shaken in late August when Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes was killed by striking miners from Bolivia’s informal, self-governing cooperatives, his body dumped by the side of the road 80 miles south of the capital, La Paz. Llanes had been sent to Bolivia’s mining region by President Evo Morales in an effort to reduce tensions among those frustrated with falling commodities prices and chafing at the government’s unwillingness to loosen restrictions they see as limiting their economic prospects. Among their repeated demands has been an expanded ability to contract with private companies—they are currently restricted to doing business […]

The ailing health of Algeria’s aging president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, commonly leads Algeria-watchers to assess the prospects for regime continuity and the risks of political instability in what amounts to an interregnum. Both make up chapters of the country’s recent history. Over the past 25 years, Algerians lived through 10 traumatic years of insurgency and counterinsurgency, sometimes called the Dark Decade that shook the country to its foundations from 1991-2002, followed by a decade and a half of peace under Bouteflika. Bouteflika, along with his predecessor Liamine Zeroual, negotiated the laying down of arms and reconciliation—albeit an imperfect one—among armed groups […]

September revealed the limits of U.S. President Barack Obama’s engagement in Asia. There was some good news, of course. On his last trip to the region, he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Laos, where he acknowledged “the suffering and sacrifices on all sides” of America’s secret war in the 1960s and 1970s and pledged to mend ties between the two countries. Later in the month, he met with Myanmar’s de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, at the White House. There he announced that all remaining sanctions on Myanmar would be lifted, a reward for the country’s democratic […]

Russia’s deepening role in the Syrian conflict continues to damage its relations with the West, as the brutal Moscow-backed Syrian offensive on Aleppo shows no signs of abating. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled a planned visit to Paris after his French counterpart Francois Hollande called Russian airstrikes in Syria “war crimes.” That followed Moscow’s veto of a French-backed U.N. Security Council draft resolution condemning the violence in Aleppo. Putin, whose visit was initially planned to inaugurate the opening of a Russian cultural center in Paris, reacted to Hollande’s comments that the trip would be downgraded to “a working […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series inviting authors to identify the biggest priority—whether a threat, risk, opportunity or challenge—facing the international order and U.S. foreign policy today. Anti-trade sentiment in the United States, embodied in Republican candidate Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency, has risen dramatically over the past two years. The conventional wisdom says that protectionism is on the rise due to the economic impact of globalization. Free trade agreements have cost U.S. jobs and driven down wages in many regions of the country, which has fueled the backlash and aided Trump’s rise. The […]

LIMA, Peru—Like many Peruvians, Augusto Correa has done well over the past two decades. In the 1990s, he and his siblings converted their grandfather’s former home in Lima’s upscale Miraflores district into a small bed-and-breakfast. Customers were scarce at first, but the business grew, and the siblings slowly expanded Hostal Buena Vista, as the bed-and-breakfast is called, from three rooms to 19, adding annexes and a third floor. In the process, Augusto’s brother Jorge opened a second Hostal Buena Vista in the highland city of Cusco, the former capital of the Incan empire, and Augusto recently inaugurated a third one […]