Eight critical uncertainties for development over the next decade, and ten recommendations for what ActionAid – who commissioned this report – should do to prepare for them
Alex Evans
Alex Evans is a Senior Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University, and the author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren't Enough? (Penguin, 2017), a book about the power of deep stories to unlock transformational change. He lives in North Yorkshire and is currently working on political polarisation and learning dry stone walling. Full biog here.
Footage of a Chinese military drill? Or, er, a clip from Top Gun?
Joshua Keating at ForeignPolicy.com has returned from the Chinese blogosphere bearing treasure. Footage posted by the PLA that purports to show a recent air...
Egypt’s Tiananmen moment (1:30 in)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWr6MypZ-JU[/youtube]
Economic disobedience
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4i1tTgUMuI[/youtube]
Tim Pawlenty for President – the movie
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfkNEq1XioE[/youtube] From Gawker: Ex-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be running for president soon, so this exciting...
Global poverty fell 30% between 2005 and 2010, says new Brookings analysis
Over at Brookings, Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz have just published an interesting new paper (pdf) on the state of global poverty. Among its generally...
Quote of the week
The opening lines of a Business Week article from 12 June 2006: On the 31st floor of a skyscraper overlooking Times Square one recent spring day, a dozen or...
Is this the world’s most successful hunger eradication program?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlExLpFZfwA[/youtube]
Is it April 1st already?
Over at the Elysee Palace, Nicolas Sarkozy has just finished his press briefing on France's plans for the G8 and G20 this year. Going through the readout...
Dominic Lawson, scourge of the straw man
Dominic Lawson's Independent piece yesterday, in which he debunked the "neo-Malthusian movement" of "population doomsters", made me chuckle. Here's a sample:...
Select Committee transcript now available
Transcript of Alex Evans and David Steven’s evidence session with the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on the role of the Foreign Office
Russia’s dirty little secret on Cote d’Ivoire
A propos of Richard's post on how the French used to behave in Cote d'Ivoire, let's not forget how another member of the Security Council P5 - Russia - is...
Mexico’s kidnapping business (AlJazeera)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt6wG1xfxQ[/youtube]
Blunt speaking from David Miliband on Afghanistan
Some very plain speaking on Afghanistan from David Miliband in the Telegraph yesterday, in a piece written to coincide with the commemoration of Richard...
Food price shock moves another step closer
So much for my observation a week ago that the new record high on the FAO Food Price Index hadn't led to widespread unrest yet - almost immediately...
Our evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee
Here's the webcast of our appearance in front of the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee earlier today - you'll need to have MS Silverlight installed on your...
Ten principles of good strategy making
As preparation for this afternoon's Foreign Affairs Select Committee hearing, one of the papers I'm looking at the Public Administration Select Committee's...
Global Dashboard in front of Foreign Affairs Select Committee
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee is doing an inquiry at the moment into "The Role of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in UK...
How not to assemble a cover story
The BBC's story today about an undercover policeman who infiltrated environmental groups for nearly a decade, before switching sides and offering to give...
FAO Food Price Index highest ever – so where are the riots?
As if to mark the start of the new decade with an indication of what we can expect from it, the FAO's Food Price Index has just surpassed its 2008 peak (it's...
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