Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Time and again, US officials have stated that they do not want America to become the policeman of the world. Yet the one institution that can help the United States from being placed in that role-the United Nations-has been treated shabbily by the United States. The United States must re-affirm the UN’s mission with concrete action, beginning with the payment of long-overdue UN dues.
Democratic transformations are never simple, linear processes. If it wants to promote democracy, the international community will have to accept the messy, compromise–driven policymaking process with which the citizens of democratic countries are familiar.
Bolivia, a country in economic and political transition, is experiencing growing pains from its recent institutional reforms. Despite the government’s move towards decentralization, Bolivians still expect a centralized state to provide solutions to problems surrounding corruption, drug trafficking, and poverty.
Bolivia’s fifteen-year long social consensus is threatened by social unrest over water prices, election processes, and a recent economic crisis. Bolivia, despite its praised democratic and economic reforms, is a fragile miracle.
21st century development strategies cannot continue to overlook the middle class. In advanced economies with democratic systems, the middle class has invented and supported homegrown, market-sustaining institutions. But who in fact are the middle class in developing countries?
Panel discussion with Jaime Serra, former Trade Minister of Mexico; Thea Lee, AFL-CIO representative; Gary Huffbauer, Senior Economist, International Institute for Economics.
President Clinton is correct that the decision to grant China permanent most-favored-nation trading status will have a historic significance equal to Richard Nixon's opening to China and Jimmy Carter's normalization of relations. But if that's true, why is the president rushing Congress to make a hasty decision, with almost no time to consider the merits and consequences of this momentous step?