Economics & Business Archive

In East Asia, warning signs are emerging that countries facing strained ties over continual territorial disputes are finding it increasingly difficult to isolate their economic decisions from their political disagreements. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that China cancelled scheduled trips by its finance minister and central bank chief to the annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Tokyo, Japan. The article called this the latest example of how the “highly volatile territorial dispute” between China and Japan is beginning to damage the “huge economic relationship” between the second and third largest economies in the world. […]

Sudanese First Vice President Omar Ali Osman Taha traveled to Turkey recently to participate in the ruling Justice and Development Party’s annual congress. In an email interview, David Shinn, an adjunct professor of international relations at George Washington University and a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, discussed Turkish-Sudanese relations. WPR: How have Turkey-Sudan relations evolved over the past decade, and what is driving ties on both sides? David Shinn: Turkey has historical ties with Sudan that date back to the Ottoman period. Ankara recognized the government in Khartoum after its independence in 1956 and soon established an […]

The government of Cyprus is seeking a new, multibillion dollar bailout from Russia, which said last month that it would only grant additional loans in coordination with the European Union. In an email interview, Andreas Stergiou, a lecturer in modern European history and politics at the University of Crete, discussed Russian-Cypriot relations. WPR: What is the recent history of Russia-Cyprus relations, and what has driven ties on both sides? Andreas Stergiou: Cyprus’ position at the crossroads of three continents has historically lent strategic importance to the island. As a result, Soviet and postcommunist Russia have maintained a consistent policy of […]

In late-September, Mayor Mike Bell of Toledo, Ohio, a city of 290,000 about an hour’s drive south of Detroit, hosted a three-day conference for more than 200 Chinese business executives. Like many other cities across the manufacturing belt of the U.S. Midwest, Toledo has suffered over the past decade, during which some 50,000 jobs disappeared and its population fell by nearly 10 percent. But the depressed local real estate prices that accompanied the downturn have attracted new buyers from an unexpected place: While overall Chinese investment in the United States remains tiny, over the past year one Chinese group spent […]

The announcement last week that Peer Steinbrück would be the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in Germany’s next general elections in September 2013 came as a surprise, given the SDP’s insistence over the past month that the decision on the party nominee would be taken closer to date of the actual polls. The party had promised a campaign based on programs, not personalities, even if it was clear that one of the SDP’s ruling troika — party chief Sigmar Gabriel, head of the parliamentary group Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Steinbrück, a former president of the North Rhine-Westphalia lander and finance minister […]

Last week, the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan signed an economic and security deal in which they agreed to resume oil exports from the newly independent South and create a demilitarized zone along their still-disputed border. Jon Temin, director of the Sudan and South Sudan Program at the United States Institute of Peace, told Trend Lines that in the weeks ahead he will be keeping an eye on the implementation of the agreements, which has been the downfall of so many deals between the two sides in the past. “Are the various committees and other bodies called for in […]

When crowds of protesters from Tunis to Cairo ignited what would become the Arab Spring in January 2011, it caught the government of then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy off guard. François Hollande, already campaigning to replace Sarkozy as president, saw an opening in Sarkozy’s initial hesitation and quickly promised to distinguish himself from his opponent’s “silence,” “incoherence” and “contradictory” diplomacy to restore French influence in the region. The demonstrations and uprisings in the Arab world allowed Hollande to draw attention away from the global financial crisis, where Sarkozy had staked his electoral argument for continuity, and toward North Africa, where France […]

China’s aggressive approach to territorial disputes with its neighbors in the South China Sea has raised regional tensions in recent weeks, highlighting the volatile potential of conflicts over territory and border demarcation. But though border disagreements can at times lead to open violence, as between Thailand and Cambodia, they can also be resolved through slow and steady negotiations, as between Cuba and the Bahamas. This WPR Special Report examines approaches to territorial disputes through articles published in the past two years. East Asia Senkaku Dispute Reflects China-Japan Struggle for Regional PrimacyBy Richard WeitzSeptember 18, 2012 Involvement of Taiwan, Hong Kong […]

The recent capture of several high-profile drug cartel capos has yet again propelled Mexico’s security situation into the spotlight. With last week’s arrest of important Zeta leader Ivan Velazquez Caballero, known as “Z-50” or “El Taliban,” the administration of President Felipe Calderón can now claim to have put 24 of the 37 most wanted drug cartel capos behind bars. While the reality of Mexico’s cartel-related violence is often shocking, much of the press coverage is more fiction than fact. In particular, three recurrent misconceptions surrounding Mexico’s security situation and drug cartels plague press coverage outside of Mexico and skew policymaking […]

Throughout the European Union’s sovereign debt crisis, the conventional wisdom has portrayed Germany as leading the EU, in particular by imposing its economic policy preferences on the eurozone. A quick glance at Greece, Italy and Spain, suffering ever more acutely from austerity measures imposed at Germany’s insistence, would seem to confirm that perception. Germans are convinced that these countries need still more of the austerity cure, while Athens, Rome and Madrid are trying to convince Berlin that the medicine is just as fatal as the disease. The outcome of this argument will determine who leads the EU moving forward, and […]