Project Syndicate

By Simon Johnson WASHINGTON, DC – Since the end of World War II, the United States dollar has been at the heart of international finance and trade.

By Emma Navarro OSLO – The Earth’s oceans face many threats, none of which have quick fixes.

By Shashi Tharoor NEW DELHI – Until recently, Indians had gotten used to taking economic growth for granted.

By Shlomo Ben-Ami TEL AVIV – US President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish offensive against the Kurds, is an unconscionable betrayal of a strategic ally.

By  Bertrand Badré and Antoine Sire PARIS – Four years after world leaders signed the Paris climate agreement and adopted the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global environmental crisis shows every sign of worsening.

By Dani Rodrik CAMBRIDGE – In Mohammed Hanif’s novel Red Birds, an American bomber pilot crashes his plane in the Arabian desert and is stranded among the locals in a nearby refugee camp.

By William Bruno and Todd Schneberk LOS ANGELES – In a stuffy attic-turned-office in Tijuana, Mexico, Juan (his name has been changed to protect his identity) described the harrowing events that drove him to flee his home in Guatemala, travel thousands of miles by foot, and request asylum in the United States.

By Yuen Yuen Ang ANN ARBOR – Since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched his sweeping anti-corruption campaign in 2012, more than 1.5 million officials, including some of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) top leaders, have been disciplined.

By Marina Silva BRASILIA – The Amazon rainforest will survive only if the will to preserve it is stronger than the desire to burn it down.

By Ricardo Hausmann CAMBRIDGE – Is there such a thing as too much sanctity?

By Shashi Tharoor NEW DELHI – Amid much fanfare, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has completed a hundred days of its second term.

By  Martin Rees CAMBRIDGE – Biomedical advances in recent decades have been hugely beneficial – most of all for the world’s poor, whose life expectancy has increased dramatically.

By Jayathma Wickramanayake NEW YORK – When I was a bright-eyed eighth grader in my native Sri Lanka, I couldn’t wait for my first sex education class.

By Robert Skidelsky LONDON – Recently I watched The Man Who Was Too Free, a moving documentary about the Russian dissident politician Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down in front of the Kremlin in 2015.

By Shahra Razavi NEW YORK – Political economy has come a long way.

By  J. Bradford DeLong BERKELEY – Global superpowers have always found it painful to acknowledge their relative decline and deal with fast-rising challengers.

By Landry Signé and Ameenah Gurib-Fakim WASHINGTON, DC/PORT LOUIS – At a time when the United States, once a standard bearer of multilateralism, is embracing protectionism, Africa has taken a bold step in the opposite direction, creating the world’s largest free-trade area since the establishment of the World Trade Organization in 1995.

By Manos Antoninis PARIS – Recent decades have brought significant progress toward a more just and equal world in areas such as poverty reduction, immunization, and life expectancy.

By Alice Albright WASHINGTON, DC – Aichetou, a 14-year-old girl, lives on the outskirts of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, in Africa’s Sahel region.

By Kenneth Rogoff CAMBRIDGE – Although much derided by climate-change deniers, not least US President Donald Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal hits the nail on the head with its urgent call for the United States to lead by example on global warming.