Crowded Waters: The South China Sea’s Next Big Flashpoint?
Sean Mirski The South China Sea ranks high on any list of the world’s geopolitical hotspots. But though the region has been volatile for centuries, the last two decades have witnessed a subtle shift in the underlying drivers of conflict. Through most of the second half of the twentieth century, the …
The New Drivers of Europe’s Geopolitics
George Friedman For the past two weeks, I have focused on the growing fragmentation of Europe. Two weeks ago, the murders in Paris prompted me to write about the fault line between Europe and the Islamic world. Last week, I wrote about the nationalism that is rising in individual European countries …
The Global Risks report 2015
The Global Risks report 2015 The Global Risks Report is an annual study published by the World Economic Forum ahead of the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The 2015 edition of the Global Risks report completes a decade of highlighting the most significant long-term risks worldwide, draw…
Disaster and Development
NEW YORK – When Typhoon Hagupit made landfall in the Philippines on December 6, memories of Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,300 people, were fresh in people’s minds. Some 227,000 families – more than a million people – were evacuated ahead of Hagupit’s arrival, according to the United Natio…
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…