Group items tagged

In the wake of the financial crisis, the United States is no longer the leader of the global economy, and no other nation has the political and economic leverage to replace it. Rather than a forum for compromise, the G-20 is likely to be an arena of conflict.

This is a good article. Got a lot of play at Davos. We have been taking a deep look at the G20 for the New Seven Revs presentation, particularly looking at the top 150 words of G20 Communication. Here are some of the word clouds we generated, 1999-2007: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3036182/G20_Communiques_(1999-2007 and 2008-2010: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3036001/G20_Communiques_%282008-2010%29 You will notice that the tone has changed considerably. Globalization was not mentioned even once between 2008 and 2010.

Seems to me there are a couple of interrelated ways to approach the governance revolution: (1) challenges to individual states (including discussion of failed states) and to the state as the primary actor on the world stage, and (2) changes and challenges in global governance (e.g., rise of the BRICs, or maybe BICs now that Russia seems to be under-performing).

* Filmed: March 2008 * Running time: 27.54 minutes * Description: In this talk, Al Gore updates his thinking on laws, policies and global efforts necessary for environmental challenges including global climate change, acid rain, etc. * Rating: Excellent * 7-Revolutions Section: Resources

The CSIS Global Strategy Institute is dedicated to promoting far-sighted thinking about the looming challenges ahead and the strategic solutions necessary to face them.

In this sobering but optimistic manifesto, development economist Sachs (The End of\nPoverty) argues that the crises facing humanity are daunting-but solutions to them are\nreadily at hand. Sachs focuses on four challenges for the coming decades: heading off\nglobal warming and environmental destruction; stabilizing the world's population;\nending extreme poverty; and breaking the political logjams that hinder global\ncooperation on these issues. The author analyzes economic data, demographic trends\nand climate science to create a lucid, accessible and suitably grim exposition of looming\nproblems, but his forte is elaborating concrete, pragmatic, low-cost remedies complete\nwith benchmarks and budgets. Sachs's entire agenda would cost less than 3% of the\nworld's annual income, and he notes that a mere two days' worth of Pentagon spending\nwould fund a comprehensive anti-malaria program for Africa, saving countless lives.\nForthright government action is the key to avoiding catastrophe, the author contends,\nnot the unilateral, militarized approach to international problems that he claims is\npursued by the Bush administration. Combining trenchant analysis with a resounding\ncall to arms, Sachs's book is an important contribution to the debate over the world's\nfuture. (Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All\nrights reserved.)

We love this article at KSU and use it each semester. Some use it as an introductory read to discuss the global challenges in general while others use it in GC 1 to talk more specifically about issues surrounding population growth. Well documented, thorough read that never fails to spark discussion.

Both a serious and ridiculous example of how people are tackling global challenges.

This site ranks major news sources across the political spectrum.