Through no fault of their own, developing countries face a perfect storm of famine, political upheaval and debt crises. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Western-led sanctions it triggered are partly to blame, as are …
Articles by: "Ngaire Woods"
Truculent truckers have driven several governments to distraction in recent weeks. In Canada, they blocked bridges to the United States and laid siege to the capital, Ottawa. In New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, truckers and other …
After a year in which people longed to get back to ‘normal’, it’s now clear that Covid-19 will not make this possible. The pandemic, now in its third year, has profoundly affected individuals, communities, countries …
International organisations are currently plagued by allegations of powerful states wielding undue influence over outcomes. These include recent revelations about Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia and other countries pushing back against the United Nations on climate …
G20 leaders will meet in Rome at the end of October, in part to discuss how to deal with future pandemics. But the truth is that their countries’ actions have largely fuelled the current one. …
The World Health Assembly met last week amid a slew of proposals—most recently from the United Nations Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response—to create stronger, enforceable global rules for tackling future infectious disease outbreaks. …
On 8 April, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will close France’s elite postgraduate school for training public leaders, the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA). Macron, himself an énarque (as graduates are known), says he …
In a recent letter to her G20 colleagues, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen argued that a truly global Covid-19 vaccination program ‘is the strongest stimulus we can provide to the global economy.’ With rich countries …
Covid-19 has offered some tough but useful lessons about governance. Many wealthy countries didn’t manage the crisis as well as anticipated, whereas many poorer, more populous and vulnerable countries exceeded expectations. The difference raises important …
At the opening of the United Nations General Assembly last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the United States and China could ‘split the globe’ into separate trade and financial blocs with diverging internet …
One of Covid-19’s paradoxes has been the way in which some wealthy, high-capacity countries (particularly the United States and the United Kingdom) failed to contain the virus, while some poorer countries and regions with less …
The world that emerges from the coronavirus pandemic may be a warring collection of countries that are more closed off and nationalistic than before. But without rapid and effective global cooperation, the world may not …