Divided We Stand

WASHINGTON, DC – The words nationalism and patriotism are commonly bandied about to describe people’s entrenched political commitments, and...

The AIIB’s Transparency Deficit

LISBON/AARHUS – The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) opened for business in 2016 and rapidly established itself as a...

Is the Long-Awaited Constitutional Crisis at Hand?

CHICAGO – Since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, legal academics like me have been bombarded with emails from journalists asking whether the...

Africa’s WTO Moment

BOSTON – The selection of the World Trade Organization’s next director-general has entered its final phase, with two candidates left in the...

America’s Multilateralism Election

MADRID – When Donald Trump became the US Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2016, many predicted that he would tone down his...

Inequality and Its Discontents

STANFORD – Inequality has been seizing ever more of the public’s attention in recent years, reflected everywhere from papal encyclicals and...

Trump’s Crony Capitalism

WASHINGTON, DC – It has taken four years, but US President Donald Trump’s tax avoidance and deep indebtedness are finally being exposed, as are...

A Modest Hope for the Post-Trump World Order

MADRID – With the US presidential election nearing its apotheosis, predictions about what will come after are dominating discussions well beyond...

How to Govern the New Digital Domain

MADRID/MONTREAL – Today, as our economic and social lives increasingly move online owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital and physical...

Getting to Low-Carbon High Seas

NEW YORK – This month, delegates from governments around the world are meeting (virtually) for a crucial, albeit under-the-radar, climate summit...

Immunization Is the Best Weapon Against Poverty

GENEVA – A recent poll found that one in three Americans would not be willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, while anti-vaxxers have reportedly...

The Arctic Comes in from the Cold

STOCKHOLM – Whether we are heading for a future of cooperation or of increasing confrontation in the Arctic remains to be seen. But it is already...

An Interview with Carl Manlan

The Leader the WTO Needs

LONDON – With the global trading system under severe pressure, international cooperation to strengthen a rules-based order is vital. Now, perhaps...

How Israel Failed Its COVID Test

TEL AVIV – When the Jewish new year began late last month, Israel was enduring its second nationwide lockdown, after daily per capita COVID-19...

Justice in a Hijacked State

WASHINGTON, DC – The Central African Republic (CAR), a former French colony based on an exploitative divide-and-rule system, is a textbook example...

Think Small for an American Recovery

BERKELEY – The US recovery is losing momentum. Job growth is slowing, the economy is still down 10.7 million jobs since February, and 36% of...

Boris Johnson’s Failed COVID-19 Launch

LONDON – An old Zen Buddhist saying cautions, “Do not mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the moon.” By focusing too much on the means,...