By: The Editors | Trend Lines
A
study by Oxfam found that inequality is on the rise in India, and that
the richest 1 percent of Indians control 58 percent of the country’s
total wealth. In an email interview, Vamsi Vakulabharanam, an associate
professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, discusses income
inequality in India.
By: Andrew MacDowall | Briefing
The
Polish opposition’s month-long occupation of parliament may have ended
earlier this month, but the deep political divisions behind Poland’s
latest political crisis remain. Critics fear that Poland could plunge
deeper into authoritarian nationalism or even worse, undermining the EU
at a crucial time.
By: J. Berkshire Miller | Briefing
Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s weeklong tour of Southeast Asia and
Australia earlier this month was an opportunity to stress the importance
of defending international norms and laws, especially in the South
China Sea. The trip was planned in relative haste after Donald Trump’s
election as U.S. president.
By: Alex Thurston | Briefing
Gambia’s
new president, Adama Barrow, finally returned to the country yesterday,
his arrival formally marking the end of a six-week political crisis. Do
ECOWAS’ actions to intervene in Gambia show a growing willingness by
the West African bloc to use force against leaders who overstay their
welcome?
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
On
New Year’s Eve, a man in southeastern Brazil shot and killed his
ex-wife, their son and 10 other people, before taking his own life. The
incident was the latest example of the rampant violence against women in
Brazil. In an email interview, Sueann Caulfield discusses women’s
rights in Brazil.
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
Last
year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called women who work “half
persons,” sparking outrage among many liberal Turks, though his
statement resonated with the country’s conservative majority. In an
email interview, Melinda Negrón-Gonzales discusses women’s rights and
gender equality in Turkey.
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
In
this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein,
and senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss U.S. President Donald
Trump’s foreign policy agenda. For the Report, Mohsen Milani talks about
former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s lasting influence on
Iranian politics.
By: Andrew Green | Briefing
One
of the more unexpected decisions to emerge in the waning days of Barack
Obama’s presidency was his move last week to ease U.S. sanctions against
Sudan that have been in place for nearly two decades. The move to open
up Sudan’s economy might encourage the reforms that 20 years of
sanctions have not.
By: Karina Piser | Trend Lines
Security
has defined France’s Africa policy under President Francois Hollande,
who was in Mali last week for the final Africa-France Summit of his
presidency. But critics argue that Hollande’s militaristic approach
distracted from the institution-building necessary for long-term African
stability.
By: Steven Metz | Column
America’s
adversaries are almost certain to challenge President Donald Trump
early on to test his inexperience in national security affairs. How he
and his team respond will determine whether other adversaries mount
challenges of their own. What is unclear is which of America’s
adversaries will move first.
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
According
to Human Rights Watch, a new rebel group in the Central African
Republic—known as Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation—has killed at
least 50 people and displaced over 17,000 in the northwest of the
country since late 2015. In an email interview, Igor Acko discusses the
security situation in CAR.
By: Christopher Looft | Briefing
Brazil’s
president is having a kind of homecoming, but not the one he wanted.
Michel Temer served in the 1980s as the top security official for the
state of Sao Paulo, overseeing its prison system. He is now struggling
to contain an unprecedented nationwide crisis in Brazil’s jails.
By: Richard Gowan | Column
What
will international peacemaking look like in the Trump era? Five
tentative but credible predictions paint a bleak picture. Though the
U.S. has been edging back from its global peacemaker role for years,
Donald Trump’s agenda will further damage institutions the U.S. built
after 1945, starting with the U.N.
By: Daniel McDowell | Feature
Since
2008, the world economy has been caught in a vicious cycle that it
can’t seem to break. With Trump’s election and China’s economic
slowdown, global economic interconnectedness continues to unravel. A
trade war now looks more likely than ever, with disastrous implications
for the world economy.
By: Ellen Laipson | Column
Presidential
transitions are always a time of apprehension and uncertainty for the
career civil servants who keep the big machine of government running.
President Donald Trump’s plans make this particular transition scarier
than most. His performance at the CIA on Saturday, in particular, is an ominous sign.
By: Judah Grunstein | Column
With
his inauguration address last Friday, President Donald Trump announced
to Americans and the world that the “America First” era had arrived. But
is this iconoclastic challenge to the U.S. foreign policy orthodoxy as
alarming as it seems? How much does global stability still depend on the
United States?
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
Labor
organizations in China expect worker protests to spike in the coming
weeks, in large part because workers from the “new economy,” which
includes e-commerce, are experiencing problems with overdue payments for
the first time. In an email interview, Cynthia Estlund discusses labor
rights in China.
By: Chuck Freilich | Briefing
Public
support for the Israel Defense Forces has not prevented it from
becoming an important locus of Israel’s domestic culture wars. The
contending forces in Israeli society—right, left, religious and
secular—seek to make use of the IDF’s unique role and prestige to
promote their respective agendas.
By: Frida Ghitis | Column
Most
Middle East observers believe that Donald Trump’s presidency will boost
the Israeli right, dealing a blow to the center and left, and worsening
relations with Palestinians. While that consensus scenario remains
highly probable, a sharply different possible turn of events should not
be discounted.
By: Steven Metz | Column
If
history holds, the U.S. will be drawn into conflict somewhere that was
never mentioned during the 2016 presidential campaign. In strategy,
unexpected threats are the norm, and there is no reason to believe this
will not continue to be the case. Looking ahead, two types of security
challenges stand out.
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
Earlier
this month, Indonesia’s military chief unilaterally suspended defense
ties with Australia, forcing President Joko Widodo to quickly walk back
the move and raising questions about the amount of power the military
has. In an interview, Fabio Scarpello discusses civil-military relations
in Indonesia.
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
In
this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein,
and senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss the global reactions to
U.S. President Donald Trump’s first week in office. For the Report,
Daniel McDowell talks with Peter Dörrie about the growing problems
facing globalism.
By: Saurav Jha | Briefing
Afghan
authorities blamed a bombing this month in Kandahar that killed five
Emirati diplomats on the Haqqani network, which many suspect of having
ties to Pakistani intelligence. That triggered speculation that the
attack was a message to the UAE about its growing counterterrorism ties
with India.