Global Politics

American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over its Sahara and the normalisation of relations between Morocco and Israel could have lasting benefits for the cause of peace in North Africa and the Middle East. For North Africa, the Sahara dispute between Morocco and the Algerian backed Polisario has dragged on for 45 years, making it one […]

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Since its freefall earlier this summer the Argentine peso continues to hold very little value, trading at about 39 pesos per U.S. dollar. Just four months ago, the peso was worth a much stronger 20 pesos per dollar, which is nearly a 50 percent depreciation in 120 days. The currency depreciation crisis mirrors crises occurring […]

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The United States has recently taken an aggressive approach to evening-out what US President Donald Trump sees as a major trade imbalance. At the risk of a possible trade war, the President has implemented tariffs against the EU and China on major goods such as steel and automobiles. But retaliatory tariffs are planned in response. […]

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This piece was originally published by the Centre for Global Constitutionalism The release of over 11.5 million documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian based law firm, has revealed the lengths to which individuals and companies will go to avoid their national tax obligations. When asked about the problem of tax avoidance, President Barack Obama acknowledged that those […]

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Feeble economic growth, allegations of kleptocracy, and the controversial sacking of not one, but two Finance Ministers, headline South Africa President Jacob Zuma’s second term. In its most recent forecast, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts the country’s economy to grow at 0.8 percent this year. While the IMF’s report expects poor growth across the […]

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Image by David Tubau (Energético) One year on from the Brexit vote, Europe’s economy faces yet another monumental challenge in the shape of the Catalan independence referendum. There are doubts as to whether the referendum will go ahead; a referendum on independence was held in 2014, but after the Spanish constitutional court anhttp:\/\/global-politics.co.uked it, the […]

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The withdrawal of the Trump Administration from the Iran nuclear deal was a long time coming. Concluded in 2015 after months of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries (United States, France, United Kingdom, Russia, China and Germany), the agreement seemingly provided a win-win outcome both in terms of the international community’s desire to rein […]

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Following two years of negotiations, a historic agreement that formally establishes the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) was signed on 21 March 2018 by representatives of 44 member states of the African Union in the Rwandan capital. Once adopted, greater market integration on the continent will follow. Global competition is fierce and African nations […]

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In the autumn of 2013, China’s president, Xi Jinping, first introduced plans for what has become known as the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, the largest integrated international infrastructure project the country has yet undertaken. The plan consists of a land-based economic belt and a string of ports constituting a ‘maritime silk road’, stretching from […]

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Recent attacks by extremists have not dampened enthusiasm for future. By Mohammad Ziauddin, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United States Bangladesh is headed in the right direction. That’s the conclusion of a new survey conducted by the respected International Republican Institute. IRI, an independent, non-partisan U.S. based organization that assists political parties to achieve good […]

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    Hun Sen’s increasingly despotic grip on Cambodia, and his family’s oligopoly of the country’s economy, should invite stronger condemnation and countermeasures from the West.   In July of this year, the NGO Global Witness published an excoriating exposé of Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia. The thrust of their criticism was directed at […]

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Here in Britain, the ongoing sagas of the EU referendum result and the planned Hinkley Point nuclear development have cast some light on a typically opaque area of public policy; the negotiation of international economic cooperation and investment. Over five thousand miles away, Myanmar is grappling with similar issues. How does a country balance the […]

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  By Amanda Beal and Maria Sofia This past September, many of the world’s leaders gathered in New York to sign the United Nations (UN) new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Numerous man-hours and unspeakable amounts of money have been used to promote this transition and enhance the global partnership for development. However, no one yet […]

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One of the most striking trends of modern times, the concentration of global wealth in hands of the very few, has been popularized by Thomas Piketty in his hugely influential Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Piketty argues that the rate of return on capital consistently exceeds the rate of economic growth. In the absence of […]

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20D will go down in Spanish history. 20th of December – the Spanish write all of their most important dates in this manner – was the first time voters rejected the duopoly that had governed the country since democracy was reintroduced in 1975. For 40 years power in Spain has been held by either the […]

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Since D17 (17th December 2014), when President Obama announced sweeping change in U.S. policy toward Cuba, news about the country has been exciting. Headlines such as ‘Obama making history’, ‘Diplomatic Relations Restored’, ‘Cuba off the Terrorist List’,‘Cuba Reopen D.C. Embassy’, ‘The American Flag being raised outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana’ and ‘American businesses preparing to […]

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‘When whales fight, the shrimp’s back is broken.’ The South Korean government has long viewed itself in terms of this proverb when it comes to its relations with the People’s Republic of China and the United States. The two great powers, in their battle for influence over the Asia-Pacific region, often require that South Korea […]

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At the stakeholder briefing during the ninth round of negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), U.S. chief negotiator Dan Mullaney quipped that everyone was discussing Investor to State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) systems except the negotiators. The latter have not discussed the issue since January 2014, when the European Commission launched a public consultation, […]

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The European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) have been negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) since 2013. Intended to revive the transatlantic economies by eliminating tariffs and accepting various degrees of regulatory convergence or mutual recognition across a wide range of sectors, and solidify EU-U.S. relations, it now appears to be […]

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Garnering over 50 percent of the vote, Hassan Rouhani assumed a decisive victory on June 2013 and became Iran’s new president after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s eight year long reign. Vowing to pull the country out of its sanction filled, depressed economy, he won the elections by a landslide. Less than three months ago, during a December […]

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