Global Middle Class Initiative: Latest Articles

A grand strategy, such as it is pursued by the Bush Administration, ultimately rests on the simple idea of a unipolar world -- the notion that the United States is the only power that counts in the world today.

Coincidentally, that is also why neo-conservative advocates are so critical of France's avowed goal of creating a multi-polar world, attributing it to France's superpower "envy."

Yet for all practical purposes, a multipolar world already… more

There are three reasons to question the emphasis of a U.S. mission in the Middle East. The first relates to whether the United States can overcome the deep legacy of distrust -- and even hatred -- past U.S. policies have created in the region.

U.S. empire for the common good

Neo-conservatives in and around the Bush Administration like to believe the United States is a different kind of hegemonic power.

They assert that the country does not… more

On the just completed trip of Treasury Secretary Snow to China, the focus was not upon human rights, North Korea, or any of the topics that have become the core of U.S.-China relations. Rather the discussion was on China's currency -- the reminimbi or Yuan -- and its peg or government set exchange rate with the U.S. dollar.

This may sound like the dry minutiae only of interest to bankers and Treasury officials, but the peg is an important reason for… more