Project Syndicate

The Middle East needs a ceasefire now

By Daoud Kuttab JERUSALEM – It is hard to imagine that anyone in the Levant or the broader Middle East managed to sleep on Saturday night, as Iran launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles toward strategic sites in Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Taxing polluters is the key to climate justice

By Laurence Tubiana PARIS – After years of avoiding any explicit mention of the primary cause of climate change, negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai last year finally reached an agreement calling for a “transition away from fossil fuels.”

What can stop the shortening of American lives?

By Michael R. Bloomberg NEW YORK – Even as COVID-19 recedes into the background of everyday life, the broader decline in US life expectancy is still with us, because too many elected officials refuse to take its causes seriously.

Solar geoengineering is a dangerous distraction

By Yacob Mulugetta, Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe, and Niclas Hällström LONDON/JOHANNESBURG – At the most recent United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), held in Nairobi, African countries took a strong stand against potential new technologies that, if developed, could tip an already disrupted climate into chaos.

The Indian giant has arrived

By  Mohamed A. El-Erian and Michael Spence CAMBRIDGE/MILAN – India’s recent economic success, solid momentum, and promising prospects are making the country ever more influential both regionally and internationally.

A big defeat for Big Tech

By Joseph E. Stiglitz NEW YORK – Last year, US President Joe Biden’s administration infuriated lobbyists representing Big Tech firms and others that profit from our personal data by denouncing a proposal that would have gutted domestic data privacy, online civil rights and liberties, and competition safeguards.

The zombification of political parties

By Jan-Werner Mueller PRINCETON – Among her final acts as chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel requested that her colleagues endorse the two people handpicked by Donald Trump to replace her.

Indian democracy’s moment of truth

By Shashi Tharoor NEW DELHI – With around 968 million people registered to vote, India’s upcoming general election (to be held over several weeks in April and May) will be the largest democratic exercise in human history.

Dithering while Haiti burns

By Jorge Heine BOSTON – The prime minister of one of the larger Caribbean countries travels to East Africa to secure a police deployment that would help address runaway gang violence back home, where a recent attack on the national penitentiary freed 4,000 prisoners.

Making sense of society

By Michael Spence MILAN – How to strike the right balance between the state and the market, and ensure the proper functioning of both, has been debated for centuries.

Judgment days for democracy

By Nicholas Reed Langen LONDON – Day by day, week by week, courts are increasingly becoming the front line in the struggle to preserve democracy from populists and authoritarians.

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