Analyses
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This article was first published by Knowledge@Wharton on October 12, 2011. European and US markets remain inextricably linked and a common effort might be the only way to solve the financial crisis. Concerns about Europe continue to drag down capital markets in the United States, which had begun to recover earlier this fall after a bitter congressional debate over the debt ceiling and a subsequent credit downgrade. And while U.S. markets were relieved that German and French leaders agreed on Sunday to come up with a plan to stabilize a simmering sovereign debt crisis in time for next month's G-20 meeting, many obstacles to a resolution of Europe's complex economic...
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Implications of recent Chinese history on Chinese-Indian relations. A hundred years may be a brief temporal punctuation for an ancient civilisation like China or India but the commemoration of the 1911 Xinhai revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty in China may be deemed an event of tectonic proportion for Asia, in particular and the world by extension. Two millennia of imperial rule had come to an end - and Asia's first republic was born. The 1911 Revolution began as an armed uprising on the evening of October 10, 1911, when Xiong Bingjun, a soldier in the New Army engineering battalion fired the first shot in Wuhan that signalled the start of the 1911 Revolution. Thus...
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Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress, hearing on “Manufacturing in the USA: How Trade Policy Offshores Jobs” (full text available in downloadable pdf below) September 21, 2011 This testimony draws upon my forthcoming book, “Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance,” my article in Foreign Affairs with Aaditya Mattoo, From Doha to the Next Bretton Woods” and my forthcoming paper with him, “A China Round of Trade Negotiations." Underlined text indicates links to supplementary material. Summary and Recommendations 1. In the post-World War II period, open trade, by lowering prices,...
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This article explores the status of NATO-Russia relations in particular since the NATO Summit that took place in Lisbon in November of 2010. It is divided into three parts. The first section summarized the history of NATO-Russia relations since the fall of Communism and the launching of the Partnership for Peace program in 1994. PART 2 of 3 The Theatre Missile Defense Strategic armaments appear to be the most delicate issue in NATO-Russia relations. A critical rift ossified during the April 2011 Berlin NRC (NATO-Russia Council) Foreign Ministers’ meeting regarding Theatre Missile Defense (TMD). As stated in the 2010 Strategic Concept, NATO seeks cooperation on missile...
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Government contractors must remain a vital part of international stability operations. In the past decade, the United States has dramatically shifted its foreign policy priorities. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have demanded additional capabilities and capacities beyond those that the U.S. Government is able execute on its own. Such gaps have traditionally been filled by contractors, who bring enormous and cost-effective capabilities, capacities, and expertise. In its final report, the bi-partisan Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC) recognized this, stating, “The logical implication of this geo-political environment is that contractors will remain a significant...
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By Glenn CarleAn excerpt from Glenn Carle's bestselling book The Interrogator: An Education, about his life as a spy. PREFACE: LYING, HONOR, AND THE GRAY WORLD I was a spy. I broke laws. I stole. I lied every day, about almost everything: to my family, to my friends, to my colleagues, to everyone around me. I almost never was who I said I was, or did what I claimed to be doing. Sometimes I was not American. I exploited people’s deepest hopes, won their deepest trust, so that they provided me what my government wanted. I was an angel who made men’s dreams come true, but my name was Faust. I healed a father’s desperately ill child, helped a frustrated employee do in his boss, or the...
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This article was first published by Knowledge@Wharton on September 28th, 2011. Analysis on the fairness of the tax system in the US, and likely scenarios for its future. Is the tax system in the United States fair? That's kind of a trick question, as fairness and unfairness are usually in the eye of the beholder. Often, a case for fairness boils down to nothing more than self interest. And because there is no final word on the subject, the debate can go on forever. In the current round, Washington is wrangling over President Barack Obama's call for a "Buffett Rule" to make sure the wealthy pay a "fair share" of taxes -- a percentage of income at least...
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An exploration of various ideas, indicators and parameters that explain the economic crisis of 2008-09 and conclusions as to how to avoid another one. After the currency crises of 1994-2001, and especially the East Asia crises of 1997-98, a lot of research investigated what countries could do to protect themselves against a future repeat. More importantly, policy makers in emerging markets took some serious measures. Some countries abandoned exchange rate targets and began to float. Many accumulated high levels of foreign exchange reserves. Many moved away from dollar-denominated debt, toward other kinds of capital inflow that would be less vulnerable to...
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This article explores the status of NATO-Russia relations in particular since the NATO Summit that took place in Lisbon in November of 2010. It is divided into three parts. The first section summarizes the history of NATO-Russia relations since the fall of Communism and the launching of the Partnership for Peace program in 1994. PART 1 of 3 Many political commentators celebrated the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Lisbon Summit on November 20th of last year as a significant success for NATO-Russia relations and an important step forward after the impasse of the 2008 Georgian Crisis. "We will leave behind us not only the Cold War, but also the post Cold War period ...and...