| December 2005
Economic Development | Health,
HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases |
Economic Development
H1 - The Faulty Premises of the Next Marshall Plan
Derek Chollet and James M. Goldgeier
The Washington Quarterly, Winter 2005-06, v29, #1, pp7-19
Few U.S. diplomatic efforts evoke such a nostalgic sense of pride
and accomplishment as the Marshall Plan. The plan has been “credited
with helping Europeans recover after the devastation of World
War II, preventing communism from gaining support among populations
filled with despair, ensuring that Western Europe could become
prosperous and strong enough to deter Soviet aggression, and creating
a liberal postwar order that planted the seeds for U.S. economic
and political dominance as well as for the creation of today's
European Union.” Today, faced with the emergence of new threats
and the establishment of new rules and institutions, U.S. policymakers
from across the political spectrum are considering how this model
of strategic foresight and economic as well as political benevolence
can be transplanted from post-World War II Europe to the Middle
East and Africa today." Derek Chollet is a fellow in
the International Security Program at CSIS. James M. Goldgeier
is the Henry A. Kissinger Scholar in Foreign Policy and International
Relations at the Library of Congress and an adjunct senior fellow
at the Council on Foreign Relations. Fulltext
H2 - Doha and Development
Cline, William R.
Foreign Affairs, December 2005, WTO Special Edition, online
"World leaders have dubbed Doha the "development round"
because they recognize how much free trade would do to foster
development -- and how urgent the need for development is. For
those hopes to be realized, both industrialized and developing
nations must go further toward getting rid of existing barriers.
William R. Cline Is Senior Fellow at the Institute for International
Economics and the Center for Global Development. Fulltext
H3 - Economic Freedom of the World: 2005 Annual Report
Cato Institute, December 2005, online edition, various pagings
This annual index "measures the degree to which the policies
and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom.
The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary
exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned
property. Thirty-eight components and sub-components are used
to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic
freedom in five areas: (1) size of government; (2) legal structure
and protection of property rights; (3) access to sound money;
(4) international exchange; and (5) regulation... The index
is co-published by the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute in
Canada in cooperation with 50 think tanks around the world.
Fulltext
H4 - Global Trade and the Common Good
Small, Andrew
America, December 12, 2005, v193, #19, pp8-12
"At the start of 2005, Americans donated $1.3 billion to
help with relief efforts in areas hit by the tsunami in Asia-a
record for an overseas disaster. The public gave $1.7 billion
after hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. At
the same time, the United States continued to lead the global
fight against H.I.V./AIDS. And the commitment of the Group of
Eight leading economies to cancel debt of heavily indebted countries
is evidence that the poor are not abandoned. Despite these positive
signs, the poor are getting poorer, and the gap between rich and
poor is getting wider... Inequity, not prosperity, is what ails
us, and no amount of public or private sharing of wealth, however
necessary, can realistically overcome that fact. What is required
is a reform of the rules of the global economy itself, starting
with the global trading system. As 2005 ends, there will be a
chance to make the global economy work for all." In a talk
to members of the U.S. Congress and Catholic bishops, Cardinal
Francis George of Chicago recognized the significance of global
trade in battling inequality and promoting a culture of life.
Rev. Andrew Small, O.M.I., foreign policy advisor to the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops, was a member of the Holy See's
delegation to the Sixth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade
Organization in Hong Kong in December. Fulltext
H5 - Why Is the World Bank Still Lending?
Lerrick,Adam
American Entreprise Institute for Public Policy Research,
Nov. 9, 2005, online edition, 2p
”This article argues that the World Bank should be restructured
in order to meet the development needs of the poorest countries
it was originally designed to assist.” Adam Lerrick is a visiting
scholar at AEI. Fulltext
H6 - The Flu Hunter
Smithsonian, January 2006, online
For years, Robert Webster has been warning of a global influenza
outbreak. Now governments worldwide are finally listening to him.
Robert Webster, a preeminent expert on avian influenza, is a virologist
at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He helped
create the first widespread commercial flu vaccine decades ago.
It was Webster who discovered that birds were likely responsible
for past flu pandemics, including the one in Asia in 1957 that
killed about two million people. Perhaps Webster's greatest contribution
to science is the idea that global influenza epidemics begin when
avian and human flu viruses combine to form a new strain, one
that people lack the ability to fight off. Fulltext
H7 - The Deadliest Virus
Barry, John
Foreign Policy; Jan/Feb2006, #152, p20-, 2/3p
The article presents an interview with John Barry, author of "The
Great Influezna: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History."
According to the author, U.S. President George W. Bush put the
country on high alert for avian flu after reading Barry's book.
Barry comments on Bush's plan to combat a potential avian flu
outbreak in the United States. Also included are comments from
Barry on the societal affect of a pandemic and on his own personal
level of concern regarding a pandemic. Fulltext
H8 - China's Disease Cauldron
Prescott, Elizabeth
National Interest, Fall 2005 Asia Supplement, pp16-21
" Merely blaming the Chinese for a lack of transparency is
not a solution to the challenges faced when dealing with a disease
such as avian influenza. China is not unique in needing to confront
public health weaknesses, but the size, scope and nature of its
domestic agricultural community make the challenge formidable.
The avian influenza epidemic among poultry and wildlife in China
is already gaining momentum, complicating any radical changes
that could be undertaken even if there were the political desire
to make them. It is imperative that support and pressure for needed
reforms to the public health and agricultural systems be maintained.
If the global community demands transparency from China, as it
should, there must also be an agreement to help it bear the burden
of battling the disease. The people who sit at the table in any
future deliberations surrounding the appropriate response to the
threat of emerging infectious diseases such as avian influenza
need to include many from beyond the public health community.
National trade representatives, transportation representatives
and controllers of national money supplies are some of the individuals
who should be thinking about what to do in the event of a global
influenza pandemic." Elizabeth M. Prescott is a biosecurity
analyst with the Eurasia Group. Fulltext
H9 - Asian Culture and AIDS
Williams, Elisabeth
Brown Journal of World Affairs, Fall 2005, v12, #1, p209-223
" Nowhere is the global HIV/AIDS crisis growing faster than
the Asia Pacific region, broadly defined as the area from Australia
to Iran. One of every five new infections worldwide occurs there;
ten years ago it was fewer than one in ten... This paper considers
the growing response to AIDS in Asia. In particular, it examines
the way culture, governance, geography, and history influence
and are influenced by the response to AIDS: the feminization of
AIDS, the internationalization of the response to the epidemic,
and the roles of drug use and human." Elizabeth H. Williams,
MPH is a Senior Program Officer at the HIV/AIDS, Asia Society.
Fulltext
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