Essay
List of Essay articles
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A drawn illustration of a soccer player with a US dollar sign on the bottom of their show about to kick a globe like a soccer ball. Soccer Still Has Some Explaining to Do
Re-read today, Franklin Foer’s 2004 classic inadvertently suggests where globalization went wrong.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to speak at the Kremlin in Moscow in this photo supplied by Sputnik. Putin Has Already Won
He’s exposed fatal divisions in the “West” even as Russians still back his Ukraine invasion.
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Joe Biden, in silhouette, walks up stairs to board a plane, with ominous dark clouds in the background. Biden’s Long Shadow Over Ukraine
His administration failed Ukraine at almost every turn, shaping the war to this day.
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An illustration shows two men against a bright yellow background. One man wears a Western-style business suit and the other wears a black robe and white head covering. The men are shaking hands. Each holds a briefcase with money spilling out, the left man's briefcase shaped like the United States' and the right man's like the Arabian Peninsula. The New Wealth of Nations
How instrumental capital is reshaping the world.
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A reflection of the U.S. Capitol on a glass panel on the ground below shows the white rotunda dome and a U.S. flag, both upside down in the mirrored image, with a partly cloudy sky visible below. Why the Democrats Are So Lost
For decades, the party has been mostly counterpunching against the right with no real agenda of its own.
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A man in a coat outside of a glass office building, with high rise buildings under construction in the background. China’s Tech Obsession Is Weighing Down Its Economy
A decade of cutting-edge investment hasn’t translated into growth.
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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.