A further practical issue is that IDA seeks to stay engaged across multiple sectors in client countries over time. E ach country’s financing package typically maintains a minimum of programming resources across agriculture, education, healt h, infrastructure, social protection, and so forth , independent of any specific assessment regarding which m... See more

In the midst of all of that, the Arab world is moving on. The new game in town is Saudi-Israel normalization. The two-state solution is off the table. Palestinian freedom is off the table. Washington is distracted with other issues; it’s not a priority. So I think all of those are the context in which they’re saying, “Look, right now, Palestinians ... See more

A common delusion is that that the region has good policies, but implementation is the problem. In reality, implementation failures reflect poor policies borne of very low domestic policymaking capacity. Too many governments in the region merely act as implementation arms of multilaterals, foreign donors, philanthropies, and other external actors. ... See more

Beginning with the New Deal and extending through the first three decades after World War II, the federal government created centers of economic power that offset the power of the giant corporations and Wall Street.

Unions pushed for and won legislation in 1935 that legitimized collective bargaining, and then, in subsequent decades, built economic ... See more

This awful past has resonated deeply with me for months as I have watched the unfolding of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the outrageous toll that it has taken on civilians on both sides—first against Israelis, and then in vastly larger numbers against Palestinians. Dower argues, I believe convincingly, that one only arrives at a state o... See more