Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The soon-to-be members of the EU are to be congratulated but a new divide has emerged to their east. Until now, the EU has been so preoccupied with its enlargement that it has had little time to look further east. It must now face up to its responsibility and focus on what it can do. The EU's goal should be to integrate the post-Soviet economies for mutual economic benefit and political stability.
Yasheng Huang, author of recently released Selling China: Foreign Direct Investment During the Reform Era, argued that surging levels of FDI are signs of weaknesses and inefficiencies in China's economy and banking system.
The U.S. Government must broaden the scope of its environmental review of the proposed U.S. - Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to include the agreement’s potential transboundary and global environmental impacts. The U.S. should support its Central American trading partners to conduct their own environmental reviews of the CAFTA.
Conventional wisdom holds that integrating labor and social issues into international trade regimes will be one of the very hardest trade policy challenges to resolve. Recent developments present a new strategic opportunity for developing countries to link trade with domestic policies that promote poverty alleviation, more equitable income distribution, and better working conditions.
Major impediments to a unified energy strategy do not come from Russia. The dynamics of interstate relations between Russia, Caspian, and other transit states, and domestic politics in any of these states, decrease the likelihood of any singular, meaningful international energy development strategy.
Since September 11, discussions of political Islam have been distorted by the tendency to identify political Islam with Osama bin Laden, his associates, and organizations involved in violent actions in places such as Chechnya, Kashmir, Algeria, and Egypt. In reality, such violent, militant groups constitute only a small minority among political Islamists.
The whole world is closely paying attention to what the US is doing in Afghanistan, because this is the first experience of a war on terrorism. When the military presence will end is difficult to say. But whatever happens, if we cannot demonstrate to other countries that we are able to finish what we started, than the other countries will think that the US is lacking in diligence and resolve.