India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, once barred from entering the U.S., is getting a rock star welcome on his first trip here since being elected in May. “Am I the only India follower who is bored with Modi’s spectacle of a U.S. visit?” asks international economics fellow Russell Green. “The glitz is fun, but I am an economic policy wonk, and from my perspective, there is little to capture the imagination.”
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement offers an opportunity to deepen U.S.-Mexico economic ties without reopening the still contentious North American Free Trade Agreement for negotiation. It may also serve as a vehicle for advancing the current Mexican government’s economic reform agenda. The leaders of the U.S. and Mexico believe that the TPP will bolster domestic economic growth.
With the recent approval of Mexico's energy reform and the current enthusiasm of South American governments to attract foreign investment in oil, one might be tempted to conclude that the tide of resource nationalism is receding in the region. Nevertheless, the cycles of investment and expropriation that have characterized the oil sector in Latin America are unlikely to go away.
This issue brief explores China’s deepening relationship with Costa Rica, which severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2007 to strengthen its economic ties with the PRC. China’s relationship with Costa Rica has opened the possibility for the PRC to reach out to other countries in the region.
The March 2013 election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the pope of the Roman Catholic Church has noticeably affected politics in Argentina, where 77 percent of the population is Catholic.
By Pablo Ava, professor, Universidad de Buenos Aires School of Law, and 2008 Americas Project Fellow
Marijuana decriminalization and legalization have gone past being a trend and are settling in as federal policy, writes nonresident fellow Gary Hale, a 31-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration. This policy brief includes recommendations for how the DEA can adjust its policies to adopt a new paradigm on marijuana policy.
The BRICS clearly want something tangible to demonstrate their global prominence and the power of non-Western values. Russell Green examines the critical issues that must be resolved before the BRICS bank can open its doors.
Despite the fact that the political and social stagnation across the Middle East and North Africa region in the past few decades has led to deteriorating levels of women’s overall participation in the political process, since the Arab Awakening, women across the region are demanding greater roles in the political arena and defying decades of marginalization in the decision-making process. Nonetheless, numerous institutional, cultural and structural obstacles must be directly addressed and remedied to give women in the region the opportunity to participate actively and equitably in the political sphere. This policy report focuses on Jordan, one of the region’s leading models for women’s political representation.
On May 23, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a series of bills to implement constitutional changes to the country’s political and electoral processes. The reforms bring some of the most dynamic shifts to Mexican politics since the 1990s, including replacing the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) with the National Electoral Institute (INE). The new INE and the measures behind it now strive to replicate the IFE’s success in the country's states and municipalities.
This issue brief identifies the four main reforms that the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government must undertake to revive the manufacturing industry in India.