Thoughts on a career in politics While still in high school, I read a book by Pete Carril, who for 29 years coached a series of exceptionally disciplined basketball teams at Princeton University, in which he recounted a lesson from his childhood. “In this life,” Carril’s father would tell him and his sister every morning, “the big, strong guys are ... Read More
Confronting global challenges in a more interconnected world “A wise man’s country is the world,” Aristippus, an ancient Greek philosopher, once said. Many others have since echoed his sentiment that individuals ought to identify with broader humanity rather than with nations. In more recent decades, astronauts have joined this chorus, suggesting that a world without borders is not an aspiration ... Read More
How globalization is a game-changer for nuclear security “Unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013,” the Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism reported in December 2008. ... Read More
Managing the global resource of water “The next world war will be over water,” the former Vice President of the World Bank, Ismail Serageldin, once proclaimed. The very nature of water as a natural resource lends itself to conflict — it is a universal necessity, and often flows from sovereignty to sovereignty, defying ownership. Considering these circumstances, combined with increasing ... Read More
The future of the WTO and the Doha trade round July 29, 2008 witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round, high-level negotiations aimed at lowering trade barriers between countries. Immediate reactions were varied, reflecting international ambivalence about globalization. Free traders viewed the collapse as a disaster, poverty activists as a moral failure, and globalization’s malcontents as a ... Read More
Afghanistan and the reevaluation of NATO According to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s founding documents, member nations “are determined to… promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area.” Almost sixty years later, NATO is mired in longstanding and unprecedented involvement in Afghanistan, a nation far outside the organization’s geographic sphere. Founded during the Cold War era, NATO’s original purpose ... Read More
The struggle to forge a successor to the Kyoto Protocol “Anthropogenic warming could lead to some impacts that are abrupt or irreversible,” warned the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a 2007 report. This dire prophecy concerns the whole world; while developing nations are perhaps most at risk due to their limited adaptive capacities, all countries could suffer a lowered ... Read More
Conflict in the Congo and the changing nature of violence For over ten years, an unrelenting war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has created the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. Over 5.4 million people have died since the conflict began, and millions more have suffered the depredations of the lawless Eastern Kivu region, including the systematic ... Read More
What Israel in Gaza tells us about modern warfare If there is one lesson that modern security institutions have learned about combating terrorist insurgencies, it is that a sledgehammer is not the appropriate tool. Armies and security forces created to deal with Cold War–style confrontations prove painfully inadequate when confronted by modern low-intensity conflicts, as was amply demonstrated by the ... Read More
How the world can end human trafficking Some evils are hard to shake. To the surprise of many, an estimated 27 million people are currently enslaved worldwide. As a result of human trafficking, people across the globe are routinely coerced into exploitive relationships for the monetary benefit of others, often for the purpose of forced labor or prostitution. As professor ... Read More
Is a new international financial regulatory system necessary? The federal takeover of U.S. mortgage-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis stunned the country and sent shockwaves through the international financial system, exposing risky lending and burgeoning trade deficits in countries around the world. Today, the international financial system is reeling from the ... Read More
When identity binds and borders divide Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the relative peace of Iraqi Kurdistan has been a notable, if often overlooked, exception to the violent insurgency, sectarian feuding, and pervasive lawlessness that has racked Iraq. Yet this achievement has also made the area of one of America’s most significant long-term security concerns in the ... Read More
Anticipating the next pandemic In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the American Gulf Coast, killing thousands and destroying the region’s economy. Such natural disasters cannot be prevented, only prepared for, in hopes of diminishing their impact. Yet the threat posed by a hurricane pales in comparison to that of an influenza pandemic, the outbreak of an especially virulent flu strain with ... Read More
