BY JOHANNA BOCKMAN In 1975, Soviet economist Leonid Kantorovich and American economist Tjalling Koopmans jointly won the Nobel Prize in Economics “for their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources.”1 How could an economist of socialism and an economist of capitalism share this prestigious prize? Michael Bernstein, historian of the United States and Provost [...]
BY AGNIESZKA PACZYNSKA Over the last three years food and fuel price increases followed by the global financial crisis have placed tremendous strains on fragile and post-conflict states, raising concerns about their ability to maintain political and social stability. At the same time, what these multiple crises have revealed is that even countries in remote [...]
BY LISA ECKENWILER Thanks in part to over a century of progress in public health and medicine, many people are enjoying longer lives. These changing demographics are generating a greater need for long-term care (LTC). In the US, while there has been considerable debate concerning the nature and extent of future LTC needs given declining [...]
BY ERIN A. COX AND ARUN K. SOOD Who will foot the premium bill for your unexpected knee surgery? Who will pay the astronomical emergency room bill from the car accident that occurred while you were without health care? These are very realistic problems in American society today. Health care costs are at an all [...]
BY ARNAUD KURZE After over half a century of modern foreign aid practices, a vast literature has addressed the question of aid effectiveness1, particularly with regards to the questionable and perturbing record of poverty alleviation in least developed countries. Since the 1990s, however, post-Soviet countries and the war-torn Balkan region have also appeared on the [...]
BY TONY SAMARA In 2010 Cape Town, South Africa will host a number of soccer matches for the World Cup, including one of the semi-final matches. That same year New Delhi, India, will host the Commonwealth Games, and Shanghai, China the World Expo. Different as they are, all three cities confront an urban population marked [...]
BY NICOLE DARNALL Imagine shopping for house paint. Your local hardware store stocks half a dozen brands that meet your criteria for price and quality. You notice on one can that there is an environmental label. It looks similar to a common nutritional label seen on most food products. The environmental label provides information about the resources [...]
BY JEFFREY W. MANTZ Nobody likes to hear about blood diamonds, that something venerated as our culture’s highest token of commitment and affection comes to us haunted by specters of oppression, cruelty and murder. It took a 2006 film with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the role of a diamond-embezzling South African mercenary and a $100 million [...]
BY ERIC MCGLINCHEY The local impact of global climate change is suddenly acutely present in Central Asia. A coincidence of extended drought in Central Asia and Australia and the transfer of food crops to ethanol production have resulted in a dramatic spike in commodity prices throughout Eurasia. Importantly, Central Asia is not alone in confronting [...]
BY SADA AKSARTOVA Throughout the 1990s, the most ambitious American efforts to promote market and democracy were directed at Russia and other post-Soviet states. The enormity—physical and symbolic—of the Soviet Union, the rapidity of its collapse and the sheer scale of the economic and political transformation in its successor states presented Western policy makers with [...]