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Blogs and Opinions

  • A new tool that measures strength in adversity

    Tuesday 27th of June 2017

    Measuring the resilience of Syrian children and adolescents displaced by conflict could help humanitarian organizations design programs for these young people and their families.

  • More people are living displaced from their homes, than at any time since World War II

    Thursday 22nd of June 2017

    More people are displaced from their homes than at any period since World War II.

  • When it comes to world leaders, West isn’t necessarily best

    Wednesday 21st of June 2017

    Have you ever wondered why the president of the World Bank always seems to be an American? Remarkably, since its foundation in 1946, every single World Bank head has been a US citizen. How about the International Monetary Fund (IMF)? Since 1946, all eleven Managing Directors of that institution have been European – five of those coming from France including four of the last six.

  • The US banned Mexican workers in 1965. What happened next?

    Tuesday 20th of June 2017

    The UK is about to leave the EU. The US and Hungary plan to dramatically scale up border walls. This recent wave of protectionist policy change is driven in part by voters’ concerns about the consequences of immigration. Many ask their representatives to restrict immigration in order to raise wages and employment for native workers (Mayda 2006), though cultural and fiscal concerns about immigration also loom large (Hainmueller and Hopkins 2014).

  • Why China and California are trying to work on climate change without Trump

    Tuesday 13th of June 2017

    The state of California and China’s Tsinghua University will establish a U.S.-China Climate Change Institute to cooperate on technology and research in the battle against global warming.

  • Digital voting could revolutionise democracy, but it might come at a cost

    Tuesday 13th of June 2017

    According to an unpublished “kitchen table survey,” conducted before last November’s presidential election in the United States, approximately 95% of the predominantly Hispanic members of one of America’s largest domestic unions preferred the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to her Republican opponent Donald Trump. Yet less than 3% of that union’s members actually planned to vote. The reason came down to economics.

  • This is the UN’s secret plan to save the world

    Tuesday 13th of June 2017

    In just the latest example of popular support for science, tens of thousands of people around the world recently marched to advocate for a worldview based on facts, not fiction. They understand that science could actually save the world, because it can help us solve our greatest health and development problems.

  • To open up global trade we need to understand ‘protectionism’

    Tuesday 13th of June 2017

    One word was conspicuous by its absence in the communiques on trade that came out of three meetings this year of the world’s finance chiefs.

  • Why populism is still a threat in Europe

    Monday 12th of June 2017

    Has the populist tide sweeping Europe crested?

  • Millennials are rapidly losing interest in democracy

    Thursday 8th of June 2017

    Not long ago, liberal democracy was regarded by many as not just the best form of government, but the inevitable form of government. At the end of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama famously called the end of history: democracy had won, everything else had failed.

  • These are the most peaceful countries in the world

    Thursday 8th of June 2017

    Despite brutal and protracted conflicts raging in the Middle East, the world has become slightly more peaceful in the past year.

  • These are the countries ranked best – and worst – at governing

    Wednesday 7th of June 2017

    For the amount of money it has to spend, the US is worse than every other Western country at providing its citizens with a good society.

  • Why the Paris climate agreement might be better off without the US

    Friday 2nd of June 2017

    In light of the news that Donald Trump wishes to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which has overseen global climate diplomacy for some 25 years, I argue that a US withdrawal would minimise risks and maximise opportunities for the climate community. Simply put: the US and the Trump administration can do more damage inside the agreement than outside it.

  • Has populism peaked? What Emmanuel Macron’s victory tells us

    Monday 15th of May 2017

    After last year, when the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union and the United States elected Donald Trump as president, xenophobic nationalism was beginning to seem irresistible. Yet France has now become the biggest power to buck the trend, electing as its president the socially liberal, pro-immigration, and pro-Europe Emmanuel Macron. Has the wave of right-wing populism in the West really crested, as some are claiming?

  • #MacronLeaks changed political campaigning. Why Macron succeeded and Clinton failed

    Friday 12th of May 2017

    Last week’s massive hack of the Macron campaign and the sharing of alleged documents using #MacronLeaks on social media gave supporters the chills. Right-wing activists and autonomous bots swarmed Facebook and Twitter with leaked information that was mixed with falsified reports, to build a narrative that Macron was a fraud and hypocrite.

  • 5 leaders exposing corruption and bringing hope to Africa

    Wednesday 3rd of May 2017

    Film stars, musicians and sports stars from across Africa are global celebrities. South African actresses like Terry Pheto win international awards; Nigerian rapper Whizkid sells out concerts across the UK; and Didier Drogba, Cote d’Ivoire’s all-time top goal scorer, is now looking to build a soccer empire in the US.

  • Pope Francis: This is why the powerful need to stay humble

    Wednesday 26th of April 2017

    Pope Francis showed up via video on the TED 2017 stage in Vancouver, Canada, offering up his thoughts in an 18-minute talk that covered everything from the viability of a happy future (it’s still possible, says the Pope) to the discovery of new planets.

  • Improving everyone’s lives is within reach. This is what we need to do

    Wednesday 26th of April 2017

    It has been said that statistics are people with the tears washed away. This is a message that attendees of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings in Washington, DC, should bear in mind as they assess progress on global development.

  • This is what the French election means for Germany – and Europe

    Tuesday 25th of April 2017

    The centrist Emmanuel Macron’s success in the first round of the French presidential election is likely to re-energize Europe. Unlike the other candidates, Macron does not just recognize the need for radical change to the European Union; he supports bringing it through Europe-wide cooperation. But Macron’s plurality of the popular vote was narrow, and a much larger share of French voters showed support for a very different political vision.

  • How leaders can restore faith in the system

    Tuesday 25th of April 2017

    As the world’s financial leaders gather for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings, many working people around the world are demanding radical change, because they sense that their voices are not being heard. Those who are supposed to represent them should not ignore this anger and frustration any longer.

  • What are the top risks to doing business in Latin America?

    Friday 31st of March 2017

    “Failure of national governance”, “unemployment” and “fiscal crises” – all prominently cited as risks by Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) business executives. As in previous years, the Global Risks Report 2017 uses data from the Executive Opinion Survey, which asks LAC executives about the risks of highest concern for doing business. The findings shed some light on the anxieties of business people throughout the region and how these differ from those of their counterparts in other parts of the world.

  • 2017: The year cybersecurity went mainstream

    Thursday 23rd of March 2017

    Last year saw a huge increase in cyber-related incidents, including big data breaches, physical infrastructure tampering, Internet of Things (IoT) devices turning on their owners, ransomware, and even allegations of election hacking that captured the public’s attention.

  • Why we have to reimagine education to fight corruption

    Thursday 9th of March 2017

    Traditional approaches to fighting corruption tend to focus on rules, compliance and enforcement. Regulations are passed and organizations are formed to root out graft. These efforts may provide part of the solution, but are often hamstrung or ineffective in places where opacity and patronage are ingrained, and where there is a gap between legal frameworks and everyday behaviors. To truly build systems and societies with integrity we need to rethink these approaches and close these gaps through reimagining education.

  • Which are the world’s strongest democracies?

    Thursday 23rd of February 2017

    Democracy is in decline.

  • 3 ways to reboot globalization

    Thursday 23rd of February 2017

    Last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced “Facebook’s plan to bring the global community together.” A few months earlier, a Swedish billionaire, László Szombatfalvy, established the Global Challenges Foundation and announced a $5-million-dollar prize to solicit ideas for remodeling global cooperation. The timing couldn’t be more symbolic, as many pundits are alarmed by what they see as an unraveling of the international system, exemplified by Brexit and a surge of anti-establishment political movements.

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