Global Archive

This weekend, leaders from the G-7 will convene for their annual summit, this time in Biarritz, France. French President Emmanuel Macron, who is spearheading France’s G-7 presidency this year, bills the meeting as a chance to relaunch multilateralism, promote democracy and tame globalization to ensure it works for everyone. More likely, the gathering will expose the political, economic and ideological fault lines threatening Western solidarity and international cooperation. What a difference five years makes. Back in 2014, the G-7 gained a new and unexpected lease on life after Russia seized Crimea and earned itself an ejection from what was then […]

Christine Lagarde took over the top spot at the International Monetary Fund eight years ago in the midst of two crises. The first was an internal crisis of leadership: Her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Khan, had just been forced to step down amid sexual assault allegations, only four years into his tenure. The second crisis was external: Europe’s economy was reeling after an initial bailout of Greece hadn’t resolved its debt crisis and political tensions between Athens and Brussels threatened to upend any future deal. Now, Lagarde is leaving the fund to become the likely next chair of the European Central Bank. […]

Earlier this month, a white supremacist gunman opened fire at a Walmart shopping center in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people. According to police, the suspected shooter has admitted to targeting “Mexicans,” and he had apparently posted a manifesto online just prior to his rampage, in which he decried a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” In the same manifesto, he praised another white supremacist gunman who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March of this year. These are sadly just a few of the violent incidents perpetrated in recent years by right-wing extremists around the world. […]

As vacation photos from exotic locales pile up in Facebook and Instagram feeds this summer, it’s easy to take far-flung tourism for granted. Well-heeled friends riding elephants in Thailand or camels in Giza might as well be at the Jersey shore or beside a lake in the Adirondacks. Mass international tourism, like the free flow of goods, services, money and data, has become a hallmark of globalization. This is neither accidental nor trivial. The ability of those with means and passports to travel the world is a function of international cooperation. It is also a force for global understanding, a […]

Before being elected president, Donald Trump had already disparaged many American allies during the 2016 campaign, questioning the point of NATO and suggesting he might abandon defense treaties with countries like Japan and South Korea, among other criticisms of longstanding U.S. foreign policy. So there were immediate questions, and lots of angst, about what effect his presidency would have on U.S. relations around the world. Three years later, Trump’s often boorish behavior has had an undeniable impact on America’s relationships with its allies. Yet America’s alliances have not fallen apart, and many far-flung friends still have good relations with Washington. […]

Editor’s Note: Guest columnist Richard Gowan is filling in for Judah Grunstein this week. Will Kelly Knight Craft make much of a diplomatic impact on the United Nations? The new U.S. permanent representative to the U.N. has already endured hefty criticism. Craft has little diplomatic experience other than a recent spell as the Trump administration’s ambassador to Canada, though she spent unusually long parts of her posting to Ottawa back in America. Environmental groups have also argued that her marriage to a senior coal industry executive means that she should not participate in U.N. climate talks. Democratic members of the […]