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CIAO DATE: 10/04
May/June 2004
Table Of Contents
10 Years Ago in FP by Paul Krugman
Modern technology in effect mandates much wider disparities…. In the United States, where markets are left relatively untrammeled by concerns about justice or fairness, the result has been a startling polarization of the earnings distribution. In Europe, where collective bargaining and the much heavier hand of the welfare state have limited income inequality, the same forces have manifested themselves instead in growing unemployment.
Africa's Revolutionary Routine by Paul Collier
Military coups have gone out of fashion across most of the globe. In the 1970s, colonels in Greece could take over the government, but today, a military coup anywhere in Europe would be unthinkable. Even in Latin America—once the world's coup epicenter—such an act would likely be greeted with mockery. Only in Africa does the coup remain a recurring aspect of public life.
Ahoy, WMDs!
Last seen as its government crumbled in 2003, diminutive Liberia has now emerged as a key U.S. ally in the fight against weapons proliferation. In February 2004, the United States signed an agreement with the West African nation that would allow U.S. forces to board and search Liberianflagged ships suspected of carrying illicit weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The agreement supports the yearold Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which the Bush administration…
Catching the Shanghai Spirit by Matthew Oresman
Four years after the Soviet Union's implosion, China and its new neighbors—Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, and Tajikistan—united to negotiate their new borders in a coalition called the "Shanghai Five." The process culminated in 1996 and 1997 with treaties demarcating and demilitarizing the roughly 4,300mile border China shares with the other members. The group soon cooperated on security and trade as well and, with the addition of Uzbekistan in 2001, officially became known as the…
Caught in the Net: Indian Outsourcing
India's image as an outsourcing utopia replete with cheap, skilled workers is under attack. London's Evening Standard reports that, in two recent incidents, staff at outsourced call centers in India accepted bribes from Indian organized crime outfits and, in exchange, helped them hack into the computer systems of British banks for which they provided services. Financial and credit card details were stolen at least once. Such episodes show that "there are some things that…
Commentary on "The Hispanic Challenge"
Commercial Blogging by Jaideep Singh
Web logs ("blogs"), once the sole domain of selfindulgent diarists and wannabe journalists, are fast taking on serious corporate and military applications.
Rhode Island based Traction Software produces "enterprise blogging" software for corporate and government clients. Using Traction's software, a group of engineers developing, say, a new fighter jet can use newspaperlike, searchable blogs containing project information and colleagues' updates. (To see a sample…
Developing an Identity by Kenneth L. Sokoloff
During the 1990s, economic officials in Latin America seemed to do everything right. In several countries, they embraced radical, promarket reforms in trade, banking, and other sectors at the urging of international financial institutions. Yet the region experienced abysmal economic growth between 1990 and 1999. In contrast, Asian economies such as China, India, South Korea, and Taiwan grew significantly during the same period, despite their disregard for many of the…
Diaper Development
If Belgian botanist Willem van Cotthem is right, an infant's diaper holds the solution to world hunger. By adapting the technology that keeps a baby's bottom dry, van Cotthem has developed a soil conditioner that could bring agricultural productivity to barren regions of the world. The soil conditioner mix, dubbed "TerraCottem" (TC), includes waterabsorbent polymers and mineral fertilizers. Just as super absorbents in diapers prevent liquid from escaping, the chemicals…
Drawing Behind the Lines by Ted Rall
Consumers in wealthy countries know why the price of a gray cotton Tshirt from the Gap is the same now as it was 10 years ago: thousands of people across the globe toiling for slave wages. Most people are surprised to learn, however, that the hightech, highly hip industry of television and film animation has joined the rag trade. What Hollywood calls "noncreative" animation work (production layouts, smoothing rough edges, not to mention the actual animation) is frequently…
Expert Sitings
Technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist Joichi Ito writes one of the world's most popular Web logs, or "blogs." Ito's blog helps me track emerging trends and ideas in global affairs by linking to news stories, articles, …
Free-Range Markets by Joshua Kurlantzick
In August, the height of the dry season, Zambia's South Luangwa National Park is so crowded with animals that wildlife enthusiasts often must stop their jeeps to let massive herds cross their path. In a single morning, the safari I was on drove amid thousands of buffalo, past vast plains packed with impala and zebra, and within feet of elephants. Such displays of abundant African fauna are becoming increasingly rare. In most developing countries, wildlife stocks have…
Headscarf Heresy by Merve Kavakci
For about 40 minutes, my colleagues in Turkey's parliament shouted at me: "Get out! Get out!" Their cries paused briefly when then Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit raised his hand and pointed in my direction. "Put this woman in her place!" he screamed. I sat still, stiff, and appalled. I had expected some controversy that day in May 1999 when I arrived at parliament. After all, I was the first woman wearing the Islamic headscarf (or hijab) elected to the legislature. In…
Hired Guns by William Hartung and Rachel Stohl
How Boeing Can Stop Its Descent by Douglas Gantenbein
Israel's Rough Draft by Yagil Levy
"The civilian is a soldier on 11 months' annual leave." That sentiment, once expressed by Gen. Yigael Yadin, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), has prevailed throughout Israel's history. Israelis have long viewed the IDF as more than simply the military; in popular mythology, the IDF is "the people's army," a crucial institution both for the defense of the state and the selfimage of the nation.
David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime…
Meet George W. Kerry by Moisís Naím
Why John Kerry's foreign policy would emulate George W. Bush's—and vice versa
On Faulty Ground
Across the world, 130 million people—roughly equal to the population of Japan—live with the threat of death from earthquakes. The map below shows how many people, on average, died from earthquakes annually between 1980 and 2000. Iran suffered from the highest average, 2,250.81 deaths. Armenia had the greatest loss per million people, at 343.96. Overall, 50 countries lost people to earthquakes. …
Online Oasis by Tara Boyle
Several years ago, officials from the island nation of Mauritius—some 1,200 miles off the coast of southeastern Africa—began making the rounds at hightech conferences. They rubbed elbows with corporate executives from France to India and wooed major investors such as HewlettPackard for advice as they launched their latest plan for economic growth: turning Mauritius into an oasis for information technology (IT) firms.
The idea of transforming a tiny island in the Indian…
Operation Broadcast Freedom
On February 14, 2004, the United States launched a commercialfree Arabic television channel, Alhurra ("The Free One"). Funded by the U.S. Congress with a $62 million appropriation, and governed by a bipartisan board like its cousins Radio Sawa and Hi Magazine, the 24hour outfit is Washington's latest move in the quest for Arab hearts and minds. FP sat down with director of news Mouafac Harb, a Beirutborn Muslim, in early March. What follows are excerpts from the…
Ranking the Rich 2004 by Moisís Naím
The second annual CGD/FP Commitment to Development Index ranks 21 rich nations on how their aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology policies help poor countries. Find out who's up, who's down, why Denmark and the Netherlands earn the top spots, and why Japan—once again—finishes last.
Remittance Wars by Justin Peters
Last December, Internet portal Yahoo! and banking giant HSBC launched a Web site that allows people working in the United States to send money to family and friends living abroad directly from their computer. At paydirect.yahoo.com, users either send friends and relatives an automatic teller machine card with money on it, or they earmark cash to be picked up at one of 60,000 "MoneyGram" locations in more than 155 countries.
Currently, only a small fraction of overseas…
Selling to the Poor by Allen L. Hammond and C.K. Prahalad
When the Indian industrial and technology conglomerate ITC started building a network of Internetconnected computers called "eChoupals" in farming villages in India's rural state of Madhya Pradesh in 2001, soy farmers were suddenly able to check fair market prices for their crops. Some farmers began tracking soy futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, and soon most of them were bypassing local auction markets and selling their crops directly to ITC for about $6 more per ton…
The IMF's China Card by Kenneth Rogoff
The Chinese economy is on the tip of everyone's tongue these days, and with good reason. The seemingly inexorable Chinese economic expansion is bootstrapping the rest of Asia out of recession. After a decade of stagnation, even Japan is showing signs of life again thanks to China, which may soon displace the United States as Japan's number one trading partner.
Yet all the good news about China obscures an unavoidable problem. Nobody—but nobody—can keep growing at…
Think Again: Al Qaeda by Jason Burke
The mere mention of al Qaeda conjures images of an efficient terrorist network guided by a powerful criminal mastermind. Yet al Qaeda is more lethal as an ideology than as an organization. "Al Qaedaism" will continue to attract supporters in the years to come—whether Osama bin Laden is around to lead them or not.
Between Osama's Lines by James G. Forsyth
Voice of a Superpower by Steven Kull
FOREIGN POLICY: How did you feel about going to war with Iraq?
John/Jane Q. Public: It's complicated. When President George W. Bush said that Saddam Hussein was making weapons of mass destruction and might give them to terrorists, I found that argument pretty convincing. So I was all for trying to get into Iraq to find out if Saddam had those weapons, and to take them away from him if he did.