Why Women Are Vital for Delivering Sustainable Development
Ema Solberg Gender equality is a question of human rights. It is also the sustainable way forward for humanity. As co-chair of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group, I am very pleased that 193 heads of state recognised this in New York last September when th…
The Global Conversation on Climate Engineering: Five Minutes With Dr. Simon Nicholson
Dr. Simon Nicholson Following a talk entitled, “Climate Engineering: Coming Soon to a Planet Near You?” the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs sat down with Co-Director of the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment Dr. Simon Nicholson to discuss the most recent developments in climate eng…
How to Pull the World Economy Out of Its Rut
Peter Coy Crazy things are happening in the world economy. In Europe and Japan, interest rates have turned negative, something long thought impossible. In the U.S., workers’ productivity is improving at the feeblest five-year rate since 1982. China is a confusing welter of slumping growth and asset …
Saudi Arabia’s Bold Vision for Economic Diversification
Mohamed A. El-Erian Saudi Arabia has captured the world’s attention with the announcement of an ambitious agenda, called Vision 2030, aimed at overhauling the structure of its economy. The plan would reduce historical high dependence on oil by transforming how the Kingdom generates income, as well a…
The World Bank is eliminating the term “developing country” from its data vocabulary
Tim Fernholz In the 2016 edition of its World Development Indicators, the World Bank has made a big choice: It’s no longer distinguishing between “developed” countries and “developing” ones in the presentation of its data. The change marks an evolution in thinking about the geographic distribution o…
Kim Jong-un’s Coronation and North Korea’s Future
Scott A. Snyder The seventh congress of the North Korean Workers’ Party (WPK) held from May 6 to 8 was a carefully choreographed affair designed to show the world that its newly installed Chairman Kim Jong-un is fully in control of the North Korean state. By taking the title of Chairman, Kim has sig…
Monopoly’s New Era
Joseph E. Stiglitz For 200 years, there have been two schools of thought about what determines the distribution of income – and how the economy functions. One, emanating from Adam Smith and nineteenth-century liberal economists, focuses on competitive markets. The other, cognizant of how Smith’s bra…
Don’t Blame Sykes-Picot for the Middle East’s Mess
Steven A. Cook, Amr T. Leheta Sometime in the 100 years since the Sykes-Picot agreement was signed, invoking its “end” became a thing among commentators, journalists, and analysts of the Middle East. Responsibility for the cliché might belong to the Independent’s Patrick Cockburn, who in June 2013 w…
How Rival Gardens of Eden in Iraq Survived ISIS, Dwindling Tourists, And Each Other
Jennifer Percy Against all odds, Iraq’s religious tourism infrastructure has endured. Thirty-five miles north of Mosul, Iraq, about an hour’s drive from Islamic State territory, was the Garden of Eden. I stood with my interpreter, Salar, a local Iraqi journalist. “See that smoke between the mountain…
Against all odds: using the SDGs to overcome fragility
Gary Milante and Kate Sullivan As evidence demonstrating the relationship between conflict and underdevelopment mounts, the task of building and sustaining global peace seems almost unattainable. This relationship is particularly precarious in countries experiencing high levels of fragility, where a…