Essay
List of Essay articles
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An illustration shows a stock ticker encircling and squeezing a globe. How Big Finance Ate Foreign Aid
Investors have drained the global south in pursuit of aggressive profit maximization.
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A child walks across a dirt road carrying a canister of water. Why the World Turned on NGOs
From powerbrokers in the ’90s to pariahs today.
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A collage illustration with a portrait of Albert Hirshman overlaid with cross sections of the globe and his name. The Development Economist Who Wasn’t
Once dismissed from the field he helped found, Albert O. Hirschman feels newly relevant.
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An illustration shows two palm trees intertwined The Problem With the Global South’s Self-Help Push
Poorer countries have become more integrated but not necessarily more united.
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Two women work at a sewing machine in a booth filled with patterned fabrics. A man is seen working on fabric at a table on the left. Africa Is Now Calling the Shots
Governments, civil society, and the private sector are reimagining development away from external interventions.
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An illustration of a tattered flag with a globe waving from a makeshift stick flagpole/ The End of Development
The West’s aid model was always a mirage. It’s time for a realistic alternative.
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An illustration shows a wind turbine cleaving the globe in half, rising out of its broken-open center. The ocean in one hemisphere is orange; in the other, it's green. The Coming Ecological Cold War
Decarbonization isn’t just about technology and markets—it’s a geopolitical revolution.
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An illustration shows the back of a person wearing a graduation cap with a globe motif on it. A hand reaches in to move a locator pin on the top of the cap/map. So You Want to Work in International Affairs
A veteran practitioner’s 12 tips to land that first job.
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A person is silhouetted in front of a white high relief statue of Stalin with other figures around him. The Kremlin’s Factory of Resentment
A new history of the Cold War unwittingly exposes Russian distortions of the past.
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A person in a soldier's uniform carries the flag of imperial Japan outside of a shrine as people walk by in the background. When Will World War II End in Japan?
Silence on the official history of 1939 to 1945 has led to a flowering of creative interpretations.
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A man with dark hair in glasses and a coat. The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey
A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.
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Photos of two men speaking each shown as a negative color inside a red and blue circle. Kissinger, Brzezinski, and the Promise of Realism
A cynical realism resonates today, but there is a model for fusing power and values.
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Elite police and soldiers are silhouetted behind a Chinese flag. China Is Not Ready for Global Leadership
Pax Americana is dead, but Pax Sinica is nowhere in sight.
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An illustration shows a hand holding up a head-shaped hourglass in a Hamlet-esque pose. Inside the hourglass are sands enveloping the statue of liberty and other monuments. The End of Modernity
A crisis is unfolding before our eyes—and also in our heads.
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An illustration depicts historical moments from the past in the curtains of the Oval Office: Julius Caesar, the Cultural Revolution in China, and three American presidents. The room shows an empty chair at the Resolute Desk and a presidential seal on the rug. Why Compare the Present to the Past?
Thinking via historical analogy has become the preferred way to confront our anxieties.
