The situation in Ukraine is the most serious foreign policy challenge ever faced by the Obama administration, writes Rice faculty scholar Richard Stoll.
Writing about India's upcoming elections, Baker Institute international economics fellow Russell Green suggests that the national momentum is waning, and India needs a strong new government to promote a clear vision to regain its upward trajectory. Will the elections in May lead to a strong, unified government, or a weak coalition of parties?
Despite mounting efforts toward achieving gender equality, the Middle East and North Africa region continues to rank the lowest worldwide when it comes to women's economic participation and opportunity.
Baker Institute health policy experts Hagop M. Kantarjian and Vivian Ho explain why Texas, which holds the notorious record of the highest rate of uninsured citizens in the U.S., should follow many Republican-led states that are now reconsidering the Medicaid expansion program under Obamacare.
While much media attention recently has focused on the geopolitical fault lines that connect Syria’s violence to wider region-wide trends, the plight of individual women, men, and children displaced within Syria or living in camps beyond its borders shows no sign of ending. As Secretary of State John Kerry has stated, the humanitarian situation in Syria is "an outrage" but the violence only looks set to worsen as opposition groups turn on each other and radical trans-national elements feed off the resulting vacuum of authority and control. This is the task as the international community prepares to reconvene in Switzerland on January 22, writes Baker Institute fellow Kristian Coates Ulrichsen in the Baker Institute Blog.
With the Yemeni government in a state of transition, the time is right to propose legislation that would protect young girls from the physical, emotional and economic harms of early marriage.
The election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as pope underscores the growing importance of Latin America for the Roman Catholic Church. Mark P. Jones, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies, discusses the significance of Pope Francis' election for the church's future.
Women’s empowerment is a multi-dimensional process of achieving basic capabilities, legal rights, and participation in key social, economic, political and cultural domains. This paper offers a set of 44 indicators for measuring women's empowerment.