The rapid expansion of relief efforts since the end of the Cold War has produced a surprising result: a series of difficult moral questions about the humanitarian enterprise.
Author: G. Pascal Zachary | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, International, Life & Society, Philanthropy, Politics & Public Policy, Sociology | Anthropology
If you are a fan of Ken Burns documentaries, this is as fine as any of them. It is interesting and educational on so many levels: the environment, biology, economic development, politics, etc. It will also really open your eyes to just how influential one person or a small group of people can be in enacting huge changes and improvements in society. You will learn … [ Read more ]
Author: Ken Burns | Source: PBS (September2009) | Subjects: America, Environment | Sustainability, History, Travel
The Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie once observed that there are “two Americas” — one at home and one abroad. The first is the America of Hollywood, work-in-progress democracy, civil rights movements and Ellis Island. The second is the America of coups and occupations, military dictators and CIA plots, economic meddling and contempt for foreign cultures. The rest of the world knows both Americas. But as … [ Read more ]
Author: Suzy Hansen | Source: The Washington Post (September 8, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, International, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
Author Mugambi Jouet dissects the causes of deep chasms within American society from an outsider’s viewpoint.
Author: Mugambi Jouet | Source: Knolwedge@Wharton (July 26, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Culture, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Since the election of Donald Trump, there’s been no shortage of theories as to why America’s social contract no longer seems to work—why the United States feels so divided and dysfunctional. Some have focused on how hyper-partisanship has dismantled traditional checks and balances on public decision-making, how Barack Obama’s rise to power exacerbated the racist tendencies of embittered reactionaries, and how former churchgoers have embraced … [ Read more ]
Author: Jonathan Kay | Source: The Atlantic (July 17, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy, Taxation
Frederick Douglass called it “a sacred effort,” and Lincoln himself thought that his Second Inaugural, which offered a theodicy of the Civil War, was better than the Gettysburg Address
Author: Garry Wills | Source: The Atlantic (September1999) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, History
A healthy society balances the power of respected governments in the public sector with both responsible businesses in the private sector and robust communities in what I call the plural sector — the clubs, religions, community hospitals, foundations, NGOs, and cooperatives with which so many of us engage. The plural sector, although the least recognized of the three, is large and diverse. Many of us … [ Read more ]
Author: Henry Mintzberg | Source: Harvard Business Review (HBR) (March2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Author Tom Nichols argues that people are angry at journalists for giving them what they want: pared-down stories tailored to them.
Authors: Brian Bethune, Tom Nichols | Source: Maclean’s (March 20, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, News | Media | Publishing, Politics & Public Policy
The world order we know is already over, and Russia is moving fast to grab the advantage. Can Trump figure out the new war in time to win it?
Author: Molly K. McKew | Source: Politico (January 1, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, International, Politics & Public Policy
The arguments being pushed by the Trump administration regarding tariffs and related restrictive trade policies are off the mark because they overlook two crucial issues, according to Wharton dean Geoffrey Garrett: “Rapid technological change coupled with economic stagnation have caused more of the pain felt in Middle America than free trade.” In this opinion piece, Garrett also notes that while free trade lowers the cost … [ Read more ]
Author: Geoffrey Garrett | Source: Knolwedge@Wharton (February 1, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy
Last week, six top State Department officials were suddenly discharged by the White House—an Undersecretary, an acting Undersecretary, and four Assistant Secretaries—without notice and without even a nominee selected to replace them. Tom Countryman, who served the nation for 35 years and at the time as Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, was in Amman booked to fly to an international meeting … [ Read more ]
Authors: Ryan Goodman, Tom Countryman | Source: Just Security (February 3, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, International, Politics & Public Policy
The Strange New Pathologies of the World’s First Rich Failed State
Author: Umair Haque | Source: Eudaimonia (January 25, 2018) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, International, Life & Society, Sociology | Anthropology
Today’s economic and political upheavals reflect an ongoing misalignment between business and economies (on the one hand) and acceptable societal outcomes (on the other). There is still time to adjust, if we are willing to reexamine some long-held assumptions.
Authors: Blair Sheppard, Colm Kelly | Source: strategy+business (Autumn2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, History, International, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
We humans have a habit of going into phases of mass destruction, generally self imposed to some extent or another.
[…]
At a local level in time people think things are fine, then things rapidly spiral out of control until they become unstoppable, and we wreak massive destruction on ourselves. For the people living in the midst of this it is hard to see happening and hard … [ Read more ]
Author: Tobias Stone | Source: Medium (July 23, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Health & Medicine, International, Military | War | Peace, Politics & Public Policy
Corporate Democrats have never advanced their interests—and at least Republicans offer a persuasive story about why they are getting screwed.
Author: Kirk Noden | Source: The Nation (November 17, 2016) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
Theories of international relations
Of the large range of theories that have emerged on how states get along with each other, or not as the case may be, I will draw, in simplified terms, on two leading schools today: liberalism and structural realism.
Author: Michael A. Witt | Source: Insead Knowledge (January 2, 2017) | Subjects: Excerpts, Foreign Policy, History, International, Military | War | Peace, Politics & Public Policy, Sociology | Anthropology
Here is a small treasury of excerpts from some of the addresses Theodore Roosevelt gave during his lifetime. When you look at anthologies of all his speeches, you find that the themes he hits in these selections were the ones he offered, with only slight alterations, over and over and over again, in every town and city he visited on country-crossing whistle stop tours. You’ll … [ Read more ]
Authors: Brett McKay, Kate McKay, Theodore Roosevelt | Source: The Art of Manliness (November 7, 2016) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Portugal treats addiction as a disease, not a crime.
Author: Nicholas Kristof | Source: The New York Times (September 22, 2017) | Subjects: Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy
When she was 30, Suzy Hansen left the US for Istanbul – and began to realize that Americans will never understand their own country until they see it as the rest of the world does.
Author: Suzy Hansen | Source: The Guardian (August 8, 2017) | Subjects: America, Culture, Demographics, Excerpts, International, Life & Society, Race Relations, Sociology | Anthropology
Description:
THE SOURCE: “Immigration and the American Obesity Epidemic” by Lingxin Hao and Julie J. H. Kim, in International Migration Review, Summer 2009.
Excerpt:
The average immigrant is slimmer than the average native-born American and stays that way for some 10 years after coming to the United States.
The typical native-born American male, 5’8″ tall, weighs 187 pounds. This makes him officially seriously overweight, according to the Centers … [ Read more ]
Authors: Julie J. H. Kim, Lingxin Hao | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Health & Medicine, Immigration, International