12:00PM

AUG 29 2007

Global issues, China and Russia

Moises Naim on The Free-Trade Paradox: Why is trade booming while trade talks are crashing. A review of The White Man’s Burden: Why The West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly. A review of The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier. An excerpt from Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization by Michael Goldman. A business version of Doctors Without Borders, Executives Without Borders, could help alleviate poverty by targeting the developing world’s persistent economic ailments, says Jonathan Ledgard, a journalist based in Africa. 

From Perspectives on Politics, Jeffrey W. Legro (Virginia): What China Will Want: The Future Intentions of a Rising Power. From Foreign Affairs, The Great Leap Backward? China's disastrous environmental record is about to bring the house crashing down. A review of A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy by Sara Bongiorni; and China Ghosts: My Daughter's Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood by Jeff Gammage. A review of Inside the Red Mansion: On the Trail of China's Most Wanted Man by Oliver August. A review of China: The Fragile Superpower by Susan L. Shirk and China Road: A Journey Into the Future of a Rising Power by Rob Gifford.

Not quite the pact that was: China, Russia and the countries sandwiched between them can stage a fine military show—but they are not about to merge into a new monolith.  From Exile, Top Ten Pieces Of New Cold War Bullshit: Everyone knows the old Marxist cliche that history is repeated first as tragedy, and then as farce. The making of a neo-KGB state: Political power in Russia now lies with the FSB, the KGB's successor; and Putin's people: The former KGB men who run Russia have the wrong idea about how to make it great. Here are ten reasons why Russia can’t trust Uncle Sam.