What path we take post-COVID-19 will depend in large part on how the world’s cities change. The Long Crisis scenarios are a timely and helpful reminder that nothing is settled: our future is up for grabs. A better future can only be won by equipping and empowering cities to drive a green, inclusive recovery post-COVID-19.
Reading about the underpants bomb episode reminded me of a funny rant on airport security penned by Shashi Tharoor in the FT a few years back when airport...
This arresting question was raised at every stop on a recent visit to four European capitals to present the findings of the World Resources 2010-2011:...
Nearly two years ago I had warned on this blog of the deep risks linked to China’s (then-widely-praised) fiscal stimulus and financial easing measures, which...
In sync with Chinese Vice Premier (and likely PM-in-waiting) Li Keqiang’s address at Davos, an interesting piece appeared today in the Global Times (the...
Here's what the world looks like if country sizes were proportional to their emissions (world map scaled to fossil-fuel carbon-dioxide emissions in 2002): And...
China won much praise (and prestige) for its prompt and bold response to the unfolding global financial crisis, announcing a fiscal stimulus package worth 14%...
There have been many blips along the road in the nineteen months since the Bali Roadmap was launched, but with less than a hundred days to go before D-day -...
A significant but little reported event occurred last Thursday. The Africa Partnership Forum held a Special Session on Climate Change on 3 September 2009 at...
The meeting today of the heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India and China (aka the ‘BRIC’s) in Yekaterinburg represents far more than the triumph of labeling...
At the end of his three day visit to Beijing this week Todd Stern, the US Climate Change Envoy, held a press conference with the Chinese press at which he...
Yesterday, May 13th, was a momentous - if little noticed - milestone in 21 century geopolitics: it marked the UN deadline for countries to submit their claims...
This is the provocative question that Martin Wolf poses in a recent commentary in the FT, reflecting on an essay by former IMF Chief Economist, Simon Johnson,...
The latest World Bank quarterly update on China’s economy made headlines today, as it revised downward by one full percentage point (to 6.5%) its estimated...
This is a response to some thoughtful reactions to my earlier post on democracy in Thailand, and to arguments made in last week's Economist about the...
With my wedding in Bangkok fast approaching, I have been watching the events unfolding there closely and with trepidation. I am dismayed at the blinkered and...
With a global recession looming, international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions may be in jeopardy, as concerns are voiced in the US, Canada and...
So far, many observers and experts point out, developing countries seem to be holding out quite well amidst the global financial turmoil. In reality the...
As a long-time resident of Beijing, concern about food and product-safety is almost a chronic neurosis. Over the past year alone, health scares have ranged...
If the politics of climate change end up polarised, is that so bad? No – it’s disastrous. Or so I’ve long thought. Look at the US – where climate is even more polarised than abortion. Result: decades of flip flopping. Ambition under Clinton; reversal...
Official development assistance (ODA) – or aid – is a small but conspicuous pillar of the international order, and its frailties are being exposed by COVID as surely as those of the other foundations of this order. The assumptions underpinning aid and its management...
Since its onset, one striking feature of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has been the narrative power of its novelty. This global narrative depicts COVID-19 pushing humanity towards a ‘historical divide’ of BC and AC (before and after COVID-19), where unknown,...