In recent decades, countries of the world have joined together in the United Nations to set goals for development. The first set of goals, the Millennium Development Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2000. The specific objectives were to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality

The high human and financial cost of the war, along with the simultaneous war in Afghanistan—where the results in no way justified the costs—soured many Americans not just on military intervention but on an active U.S. role in the world more generally. Ironically, Iran emerged as a major beneficiary of the war because its archrival Iraq was left

The two most important countries in Africa are arguably South Africa and Nigeria. They represent more than one-fifth of Africa’s population and more than 45 percent of its economic output. They are the continent’s two anchors.

In just two generations, Japan evolved from a defeated imperial militarist country to a functioning democracy, ultimately moving beyond prolonged one-party domination. It became a manufacturing powerhouse, for a long time the world’s second-largest economy and now its third largest. Japan also embraced a constitution that limited its military’s

World War I ended in November 1918 after Germany, following a failed offensive during the spring of 1918, expressed its desire for peace and signed an armistice. Two months later delegates from all the protagonists (other than Germany and Russia) met in France, and by the end of June 1919 agreed to the Treaty of Versailles. Germany accepted blame

What could change things? As other economies grow and become more open, they may be both willing and able to take on the role of a reserve currency. China obviously comes to mind here. Change could also come about if the world comes to have concerns over the health or management of the U.S. economy. The large and growing pool of U.S. debt, now

Another way governments contend with globalization is through collective rather than national responses. This is the essence of multilateralism. No country on its own can shield itself from all the downsides of globalization or harvest solely the positive aspects; what has emerged as a result is a set of global arrangements—legal, political, and

Globalization—the emergence of an increasingly interconnected world marked by greater flows across borders of workers, tourists, ideas, emails, oil and gas, television and radio signals, data, prescription and illicit drugs, terrorists, migrants and refugees, weapons, viruses (computer and biological), carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute

The political systems are diverse: Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand are all robust democracies, while China is decidedly authoritarian and North Korea (more formally the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is governed by…

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