While the brutal expansion of the Islamic State of Levant (ISIL) has triggered great fears in popular imagination, Dr. Steinbock says that the ISIL’s — and its potential successors’ — claim to a territorial caliphate is likely to pose enduring economic, political and strategic challenges to the international community.
One possible future – a glimpse of our children’s fate if the climate keeps changing faster than our efforts to address it. Submerged countries. Abandoned cities. Fields that no longer grow. Political disruptions that trigger new conflict, and even more floods of desperate peoples seeking the sanctuary of nations not their own.
The G20 leader’s summit took place in November in Istanbul, Turkey. The emphasis of Turkey’s G20 presidency this year is on “inclusive and robust global growth.” Turkey recognizes inequality as a major problem within countries as well as across national borders and stresses the need for reducing inequality in order to achieve mutual growth.
Recent tensions over maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea have highlighted the lack of consensus over the existing security order in Asia. Understanding China’s perception of the Asian security order is crucial to find innovative policy solutions to enhance security cooperation. So how does China conceptualise the current security order and what do we know of its vision for the future?
Development researchers cover many dimensions when discussing poverty in developing countries. Numerous studies have focused on the size of the response of the poverty rate to growth of real per capita income, usually stated in terms of income or growth elasticity of poverty. However, almost all these studies consider the global or regional magnitude of the elasticity, overlooking cross-country variations in the response of poverty to income growth.
Globalisation needs global institutions of governance.
In the wake of the 10th meeting of G20 leaders at summit level in Antalya, Turkey on 15–16 November, now is a good time to reflect on the state of global governance.
The roots of globalisation lay in the quest for empire. The combination of church and state meant that some of the early attempts at global governance were through religious institutions, such as the Papacy and the Caliphate.
As talks begin this week in Paris, strong rhetoric has already erupted in favor of policies designed to combat climate change. Six heads of state and the leadership of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led the way with calls for support from corporations and governments. These individuals want to put a price on carbon as a means of simplifying the process for investing in cleaner technologies and ensuring a greener future.
For years now, the climate talks have revolved around discussions who should bear the burden of cutting emissions, particularly between developed and developing nations. Much of Paris climate summit will be focused on this notion of equity and how to ensure that each country does its their fair share in the fight against climate change.
What happens in China is central to the global effort to limit the extent of future climate change. China is already the largest emitter of greenhouse gases by far, even as it continues its process of urbanisation and economic modernisation. Under a traditional model of energy-intensive economic growth fed by fossil fuels, this would thwart the world’s chances of keeping climate change at levels considered relatively safe.
The US dollar remains firm against most of the major currencies to start what promises to be a critical week for investors. There are two main considerations. The first is the last minute position adjustments ahead the key events that begin with the IMF’s SDR decision later today, running through the start-of the month data (especially PMIs), central bank meetings in Australia, Canada, and then the big one, the ECB. The US monthly jobs report and the OPEC meeting cap the weeks. The second consideration is month-end plays, where fund managers adjust position
