The Climate Breakthrough in Beijing Gives the World a Fighting Chance
T oday’s US-China joint announcement on climate change and energy is the most important advance on the climate change agenda in many years. While the full ramifications will only be known at the climate summit in Paris in December 2015, the two largest C02 emitters have finally spoken, and most impo…
How Was Life? – Global Well-being since 1820
H ow was life in 1820, and how has it improved over time? Our view on socio‑economic development since the Industrial Revolution is to a large extent based on the evidence produced by historical national accounting in the tradition of Simon Kuznets and Angus Maddison. But trends in gross domestic pr…
It may be hard to find allies outside the Union
The Times of London Published at 12:01AM, September 9 2014 by Vuk Jeremić Scots must realise that a vote for independence will not be without repercussions for the rest of the UK and Europe Next week the residents of Scotland will vote on whether to leave the UK after more than three centuries. Scot…
The Limits of Climate Negotiations
Jeffrey Sachs NEW YORK – If the world is to solve the climate-change crisis, we will need a new approach. Currently, the major powers view climate change as a negotiation over who will reduce their CO 2 emissions (mainly from the use of coal, oil, and gas). Each agrees to small “contributions” of em…
What Are We Waiting For?
Miguel Ángel Moratinos The latest events in Gaza bring back the cruelty and suffering endured by a region, to which I have dedicated a large part of my professional and personal efforts, and which, unfortunately, have not been able to put an end to more than 64 years of conflict. On the Palestinian …
Transforming the United Nations From Raison dEtat to Raison de Planete
Vuk Jeremić This month marks the centenary of the start of the First World War. Notwithstanding the vast transformations that we have undergone since, this great conflict remains what Winston Churchill called “a drama never surpassed.” As we face fresh turmoil around the world today, many fear histo…
Sustainability and Management Competence
Steven Cohen The Challenges of Sustainability In the past several decades, we have developed what I sometimes call a brain-based economy. The high value added elements of modern economic life involve analytic concepts, technological development, mathematical models, communications and creativity. We…
Ukraine and the Crisis of International Law
Jeffrey Sachs International law itself is at a crossroads. The US, Russia, the EU, and NATO cite it when it is to their advantage and disregard it when they deem it a nuisance. Again, this is not to justify Russia’s unacceptable actions; rather, it is to add them to the sequence of actions contrary …
Good Governance as a Post-2015 Millennium Development Goal
Daniel F. Runde, Conor M. Savoy The World Bank noted, in a 1989 report, that “underlying the litany of Africa’s development problems is a crisis of governance.” Although matters have improved since 1989, lower debt and more democracies for example, good governance is still elusive and a major impedi…
France and the Balkans in the New Age
CIRSD Program Director, Nikola Jovanović discusses French policies during the Cold War and beyond, the relationship of the Fifth Republic with Germany and how all these affected developments in the European Union, the European Continent and regions that some consider to be on its periphery. “Madelei…