Joshua Goldstein Wars have influenced the economic history profoundly across time and space. Winners of wars have shaped economic institutions and trade patterns. They have influenced technological developments as well. Above all, recurring war has drained wealth, disrupted markets, and depressed economic growth. Economic Effects of War Wars are expensive (in money and other resources), destructive (of capital and human …

Quietly, amid the carnage and chaos in the daily news, 2016 is shaping up as a good year for peace in the world. You read that right. A significant escalation of war over the past few years is, at the moment, abating. For nearly two-thirds of a century, from 1945 to 2011, war had been in overall decline. The global …

Since the signing of the P5+1-Iran nuclear deal that lifted most international sanctions on the latter, China has emerged as a principal beneficiary. This is as much a result of aggressive Chinese push as it is difficulties faced by the West. China has pursued opportunities in the Iranian nuclear energy market, increased investment and expanded influence, with what could be …

On 14 July 2015, a historic deal named Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was struck between Iran and P5+1 — the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany that have negotiated with Iran about its nuclear program since 2006 — in Austrian capital Vienna. The deal brought much hope and joy in Iran, particularly with promises of an …

In recent months, there have been much discussions on the agenda of the communal fascists on events like the twisted nationalism, increasing fabricated cases, human rights violations using draconian laws, developments in Chennai against Dalits, beef debate, attacks on writers, moral policing, attacks on human rights activists, Rohit Vemula’s suicide and the subsequent Dalit students movement in Hyderbad University, government’s …

In recent months, the South China Sea has become a hot issue as certain regional countries, presumably under outside instigation, tried to create a stir in hopes of capitalizing on it. In other words, the source of the trouble is efforts to create disputes in the hope of profiting from it while regional stability requires efforts to find common ground …

International relations have entered a very difficult period, and Russia once again finds itself at the crossroads of key trends that determine the vector of future global development. Many different opinions have been expressed in this connection including the fear that the Russians have a distorted view of the international situation and Russia’s international standing. This, in fact, echoes the …

Over the past decade, Russia and China have come into closer alignment and their bilateral collaboration has grown. At the same time, both Beijing and Moscow have taken steps to alter the status quo in their respective peripheries. Warmer Sino-Russian relations elicit the question whether the closer alignment of these two neighbours is somehow changing international politics to the disadvantage …

The fourth Nuclear Security Summit – the biennial conclave of heads of governments from around the world – concluded recently in Washington, DC. The final summit in the present format focused on securing nuclear materials, preventing nuclear terrorism, strengthening national and international nuclear security regimes, and charting a future course of action to ensure that nuclear security is accorded highest …

President Barack Obama created a history of sort on March 21-22 by restoring the diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, frozen for the last 54 years. He has displayed the bold and soft power of American diplomacy which could hardly be possible for any serving President of the sole superpower of the world at least when Castros who had …