BY EVA BUSZA1 In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of a core group of states from the Global South which are on track to become the future center of global economic dynamism and power: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).2 Today, these countries account for approximately 40 per cent of the [...]
BY BRIAN FINLAY Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history — the risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of nuclear attack has gone up. Nuclear materials that could be sold or stolen and fashioned into a nuclear weapon exist [...]
BY AGNIESZKA PACZYNSKA 1 The last two decades have witnessed fundamental shifts in international economic dynamics and the gradual reshaping of global political relationships and collaborations. In particular, emerging powers in the global south are now playing a much more prominent role in the global economy and are beginning to rewrite transnational political frameworks. As their [...]
BY TERRENCE LYONS In April 2011, the Center for Global Studies (CGS), George Mason University, sponsored a conference on Emerging Donors: Shifting Agendas in Development and Security. This conference brought together academics, researchers, and practitioners to investigate one of the central questions relating to one aspect of South-South relationships. This conference followed a 2010 CGS [...]
BY SEAN W. BURGES One of the hot potatoes being passed around the policy branches of most major international development agencies is the question of what to do about the rising group of development actors who are not part of the exclusive club that meets in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance [...]
BY APRIL R. BICCUM Global poverty has become an important global issue in the last 20 years and activism on behalf of the global poor has become increasingly popular. Both a symptom and effect of this popularity, is the increased involvement of individual Hollywood celebrities, activists and advocates in development and the increased visibility of [...]
BY DEBORAH BRÄUTIGAM On hearing of one major Chinese deal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an editor at the Financial Times wrote: “Beijing has thrown down its most direct challenge yet to the West’s architecture for aiding Africa’s development.” I think he was right. This challenge is not just about low environmental, governance, [...]
BY MARK N. KATZ Largely quiescent for decades, the Arab world has experienced a surprising—and surprisingly powerful—wave of revolutionary activity beginning in January 2011 and continuing ever since then. So far, the “Arab Spring,” as it is popularly known, has resulted in the downfall of Tunisia’s Zene el-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Although [...]
BY AZIZ ABU SARAH The series of Arab protests that started in Tunisia caught governments around the world by surprise. Western powers were confident that Arab leaders would quickly restore calm, and Arab leaders trusted they would be able to crush the protests. Western leaders in particular were so sure of the status quo that [...]
BY KARINA V. KOROSTELINA The Orange Revolution in Ukraine was not just a series of protests and mass non-violent actions in the fall and winter of 2004-2005. It was an event that inspired people, especially young to believe in their own agency, their own ability to influence government and change the country for the best. [...]