Comment & Opinion - Columnists Archives

17 June 2013
I think of Detroit as the municipal, financial, legal equivalent of Schrödinger's cat. It is at once alive and dead. It is locked in a strange twilight zone between the two.…
13 June 2013
Andy Sumner speculates on the future role of aid agencies. Imagine a world without extreme poverty. The Economist did and in doing so joined others who have argued that extreme…
30 May 2013
Andy Sumner and Alex Cobham examine why some countries manage direct tax evasion better than others. Debate on the role of inequality in the post-2015 framework has moved rapidly…
27 May 2013
The Syria crisis is certainly more than just another Arab Spring conflict or civil war. Syria presents a large-scale humanitarian crisis for the region. It may be another year…
23 May 2013
This past weekend, I was in Connecticut for my dear friend Michelle’s wedding. Having arrived a day early, we elected to see Clybourne Park (now playing at the lovely and…
20 May 2013
Cornelius Adebahr unpicks the international security dimensions of the next Iranian elections. Ironically enough, the life-or-death decision whether a country wants to have…
09 May 2013
I have often been asked why Africa, after finding a few good leaders in the mid Twentieth Century, has been subjected to a list of terrible leaders. Africa is accused of being the…
20 April 2013
While the US pivot to Asia under the Obama administration has gathered much attention, a number of conflicts around the world can be seen as ‘pivots’ in which the world tilts…
17 April 2013
As a believer in the academy as one of the few refuges of meritocracy in Western Civilization, the existence of athletic scholarships has always troubled me. As a matter of policy…
04 April 2013
There are conflicting explanations for why DFID exists. Whether you believe the agency is a financial apology for mismanaged colonialism, a foreign policy tool to exert control…