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Venezuela After Chávez

As it becomes increasingly likely that Hugo Chávez’s cancer will prove fatal (he announced earlier this month that his cancer had returned and that he would undergo surgery and radiation therapy to fight it), it is important to consider what might become of Venezuela should its charismatic leader pass away.

By Alex Palmer  |  May 3, 2012  |  16
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Persistent Paralegal: Understanding Personal Privacy in a Social Media Age

In an age of increasing social media usage, there are growing concerns about individual privacy within social media and the contours of now-outdated laws that are invoked to protect individuals.  Considering the wealth of information provided on social media websites and the monitoring and marketing potential of this information, more issues regarding individual privacy violations are bound to occur.  

By Fiona Causer  |  April 22, 2012  |  56
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Perspectives, Print Perspectives
At Home and Abroad

The United States’ preeminent position as the leading democracy in the world is threatened today by a breakdown in our politics that can be traced back to the 2000 election and the policy failures that occurred in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. I have seen this erosion in America’s standing firsthand in my work abroad. For the last 17 years I have worked on campaigns outside of the United States as a political consultant. That work, regarding the way in which American consultants run high-level political campaigns abroad, has been the subject of a study group that I led this fall at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

By Thomas A. (Tad) Devine  |  April 10, 2012  |  13
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Features, Print Features
Strengthening Space Security

Fifty years ago, the Space Age was not yet five years old but the broad outlines of US space interests were visible. The year 1962 saw the first US human orbital flight by John Glenn on a converted Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Telstar 1 demonstrated the first transatlantic television, telephone, and fax transmissions by an active satellite. The United Kingdom became the third country to operate a satellite with the US launch of Ariel 1. Later that year, both Telstar 1 and Ariel 1 were seriously damaged when the United States detonated a 1.4-megaton nuclear device 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean in what was titled the Starfish Prime test.

By Scott Pace  |  March 30, 2012  |  3
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Interviews, Web Interviews
Northern Juggernaut? A Look Inside the Canadian Economy with Don Drummond

Don Drummond is the Matthews Fellow on Global Public Policy at Queen’s University at Kingston. From 2000 to 2010, he was the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for TD Bank Financial Group. In March 2011, he was appointed Chair of the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services. 

When Canada is mentioned in the international business press, it is often mentioned in a positive light. We read about Canada’s sound banking system and relatively low public debt or we hear about its GDP and employment growth that has outstripped other G7 countries. But could you give us a more complete picture? What is going well in Canada’s economy and what is going not-so-well?

By Winston Gee  |  February 17, 2012  |  9
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All-In for Infrastructure: Who Derailed America?

In 1869, the ceremonial “Last Spike” of the world’s first transcontinental was driven into the ground at Promontory Heights, Utah. Not only did it revolutionize transportation in the United States, but also it instantly became a proud symbol of American progress, optimism, and audacity. Now, well over a century later, there is a great deal of uncertainty about America’s future as the United States seems lacking in the progressive optimism that brought it to the top. But the question I’m concerned with at the moment is much simpler, though perhaps equally enigmatic: What happened to the American rail system?

By  |  January 15, 2012  |  119
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Global Notebook
Democratic Dishonesty

President Cristina Fernández Kirchner has reason to be optimistic. The first female president of Argentina is very likely to be competing for reelection in October and the latest opinion polls show that she is significantly more popular than her political rivals. Although the President’s popularity has taken dips in the past and her political career has seen its share of scandal, the government has been able to quickly recover its levels of popular approval. In 2009, President Kirchner achieved only slightly more than 30 percent approval in opinion polls; however, in a more recent Ipsos-Mora y Araújo poll, 65 percent of those interviewed described the presidential image as “good,” or even “very good.”

By Maria Shen  |  January 12, 2012  |  1
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Global Notebook
The Chavez Paradox

In June, the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, traveled to Cuba for emergency surgery. A month later, the announcement that he was undergoing cancer treatment threw the apparent hegemony of his revolution into disarray and began to cast doubts on the future of his radical social agenda. Since then, updates concerning his health have been scarce, leading to rife speculation as to the exact nature of his illness and his political future. As Venezuela faces its greatest period of political uncertainty in close to a decade, the debate over the influence of 21st century Latin American socialism and its emblematic leader rages more intensely than it ever has.

By Alex Durand  |  January 12, 2012
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Taken For Granted: Brazil's Forgotten Laborers

In 1888, Brazil became the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery. However, even today, many Brazilians – some say as many as 250,000 – are working under conditions not so dissimilar to those faced by slaves over a century ago.

In the northeastern state of Pará, slaves are commonly the ones who do the backbreaking work of turning wood into charcoal.

By  |  January 9, 2012  |  139
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Perspectives, Print Perspectives
The Chilean Way

Over the past 20 years, Chile has established a successful social democracy in which public policies complement and temper market forces. Economic growth and targeted social policies have led to a major reduction in poverty, while other reforms have improved the judicial system and expanded cultural liberties.

By Richard Lagos  |  December 24, 2011
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