Across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, countries are in the first stage of the nutrition transition, away from widespread malnourishment. Almost as rapidly, they are entering a second stage of the transition: toward a spiraling body mass. The evidence that this trend can be halted and reversed provides hope that the whole world can achieve […]
The amount of debt globally has soared more than 40 percent to $100 trillion since the first signs of the financial crisis as governments borrowed to pull their economies out of recession and companies took advantage of record low interest rates. Read Here – Bloomberg
China’s economy grew 7.7 percent in 2013, overshooting the official target of 7.5 percent, But a shaky start this year, as shown in soft manufacturing activity, has put the focus on how the government will pace and sequence its overhauls while guaranteeing solid growth amid the world’s fragile recovery. Economic growth predicted for 2014 at […]
Faced with greater diplomatic pressure from Beijing and belt-tightening in Washington, U.S. allies like Japan have started to rearm in earnest. Asia is quickly becoming “the most militarized region in the world.” U.S. partners and allies in the region plan to spend 53 percent more between 2013 and 2018 than they did in the previous five-year period. […]
As President Vladimir Putin tests Europe’s resolve during the crisis over Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s admiration for Catherine hints at the complex ties binding Germany and Russia together that give her sway over Putin yet constrain her response. Read Here – Bloomberg
“The water in Afghanistan,” General Zia-ul-Haq had told his spymaster in December 1979, “must boil at the right temperature.” India still has time to learn from the lessons of the war that was lost 25 years ago, and work to make sure the pot doesn’t boil over, writes Praveen Swami Read Here – The Hindu
In his compelling essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell links the decline of civilizations to a self-reinforcing relationship between muddy thinking and bad writing. “If thought corrupts language,” he writes, “language can also corrupt thought.” Read Here – National Interest
In the 12 months since Xi Jinping assumed the presidency of China, he has amassed more power more swiftly than any Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping, foreshadowing changes in the way China governs itself and deals with the rest of the world. Read Here – Businessweek
The huge coming out party in Myanmar since 2012 has officially veered into hangover territory. That’s the gist of this Asia Sentinel feature that cites recent World Bank and U.S. State Department warnings about everything from the difficulty of doing business to unproductive investments to infrastructure-related bottlenecks, writes William Pesak Read Here – Bloomberg
A confident-looking Abdel Fattah el-Sisi strides across the tarmac at Almaza Air Base, dressed in a blue blazer and his trademark sunglasses. He is not yet Egypt’s head of state, but certainly looks like one Read Here – Politico
looking beyond borders 