Economic Development
The Cuban Mystique
Cuba has an allure for the farther reaches of the American left. Sicko, Michael Moore’s 2007 critique of the American healthcare system, suggested that Cuba’s hospitals were better than ours....
Keep Your Eye on Swaziland
Swaziland, a small landlocked country in Southern Africa, has a knack for making the news, and, more often than not, for the wrong reasons. However, a financial crisis in 2011...
America, Don’t Forget about the Deficit: 5 Ways to Control the Debt and Unleash Growth
This week, the Treasury Department releases the actual deficit figure for fiscal year (FY) 2014 which ended on September 30. At about half a trillion dollars, this year’s deficit adds...
Kazakhstan: Central Asia’s Vital Nation
Editor’s Note: The National Interest’s Editor Jacob Heilbrunn spoke with Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov. Minister Idrissov has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a senior diplomat. In 1992,...
Applying Rwanda’s Painful Lessons to Burundi
In one of the world’s poorest countries in east-central Africa, an entrenched Hutu president has upended his country’s constitution in order to run for reelection in next year’s election. To...
India Unleashed
Only a decade ago, India seemed destined to rival China. Annual growth had averaged almost 9 percent over a seven-year stretch; domestic investment was booming; domestic companies were building global...
A Looming Arms Race in East Asia?
The annual SIPRI and IISS reports about military spending have recently been published, and it appears there is an emerging consensus that East Asian countries are engaged in a massive...
Be Afraid: The EU’s Next Economic Crisis is Looming
While Ukraine has wiped much economic and financial news from the front pages, Europe’s problems have taken a turn for the worse. Signs of inordinately low inflation and possibly even...
Asia’s Two Very Different Futures
It’s well established that we are living in the Asian Century. Just what the Asian Century will look like is open to debate. In my view, Asia faces two possible...
The Arabs’ 1848
The Arab upheaval has been the cause of profound bewilderment in the developed world and among policy makers, not least in Washington. Great enthusiasm for the Arab Spring was quickly...
China Can Make Nuclear Power Work
The idea that nuclear power represents the clean energy solution to problems of pollution and climate change has supporters from across the political spectrum, ranging from Sarah Palin on the...
Why the American Middle Class Is Dying
The skills gap is widening, the middle class is shrinking, and wages are stagnant. America has underinvested in areas of competitiveness over the past several decades while overinvesting in short-term...