The challenge of improving Asia’s environment has been translated into business opportunities. These range from providing clean, always on, tap-water and sewage treatment to providing renewable energy and energy efficient buildings. It would appear that in the quest for sustainable growth, businesses in Asia are discovering that what is good for the environment is also good for business.
China and Europe: Reconnecting Across a New Silk Road
by Xiangming Chen and Julia Mardeusz
Since 2013, economic and trade relations between China and Europe have grown significantly. In this article, the authors look beyond conventional economic indicators, like trade, and political issues, like human rights, instead focusing on transport infrastructure, real estate and tourism to show that a new page is unfolding in the history of China-Europe relations.
March – April 2015
The Delusions of Counterinsurgency China and Europe: Reconnecting Across a New Silk Road
Law
International Law in a Multipolar World
Charles Camp and Theresa Bowman
Politics
The World of States
John L. Campbell and John A. Hall
David Martin Jones and Michael L.R. Smith
Africa
Developing Change Competence for the
African Environment
Franca Ovadje
Interview
Diversity, Leadership & Sustainable Growth
Interview with Jan Sturesson
Finance
From Hubris to Disgrace: The End of Finance as we Know it
Mark Esposito and Terence TseUnited States
Food and Fuel Excess: The Dark Side of America’s Exceptionalism
Robert Paarlberg
China
“The Still Running Red Queen” China Since the Financial Crisis
Michael Murphree and Dan Breznitz
Xiangming Chen and Julia Mardeusz
India
Decrypting The Aspiring Indian Low-Income Consumer
Glyn Atwal, Douglas Bryson and
Ambi Parameswaran
Asia
The Greening of Asia: Businesses’ Role in the World’s Biggest-Ever Environmental Clean-Up
Mark L. Clifford
Ukraine
Ukraine Crisis: What it Means tor the West
Andrew Wilson
Failed Statebuilding versus Peace Formation: The Consequences and Implications over the Last 25 Years
Recent years have seen an abundance of foreign intervention to achieve peace and statebuilding. Below, Oliver Richmond discusses how statebuilding often fails to achieve its goal of long-term peace and a stable state, and questions whether peace formation should come from actors and institutions?
China Looks West: What Is at Stake in Beijing’s “New Silk Road” Project
Flynt Leverett, Hillary Mann Leverett and Wu Bingbing
Not even two years into what will almost certainly be a ten-year tenure as China’s president, Xi Jinping has already had an impact on China’s foreign policy: Standing up for what many Chinese see as their nation’s territorial sovereignty in maritime boundary disputes in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, proposing a “new model of great power relations” to guide relations with the United States, and presiding over the consolidation of what Xi himself calls a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with Russia.1 But the most consequential diplomatic initiative of Xi’s presidency may turn out to be his calls to create a “New Silk Road Economic Belt” and a “Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century”: vast infrastructure and investment schemes aimed at expanding China’s economic connections to – and its political influence across – much of Eurasia.
Global Energy Dilemmas: Revisited
When it comes to global energy consumption, business as usual is no longer an option. Here Michael Bradshaw reflects on the energy dilemmas we face today, at the beginning of what will be a crucial year in determining the international community’s future energy agenda.
Transformation of Financial Services in Northeast Asian Banks: An Unexpected, but Pleasant, Cultural Surprise
By Jung Kee Hong and You-il Lee
Below Dr. Jung Kee Hong and Dr. You-il Lee explore the new emergence of financial market trends shown in Northeast Asia, such as the rapid growth in bancassurance in Korea and Taiwan. The authors offer an analysis on a common cultural value that Korean and Taiwanese banking customers appreciate, and the main drivers from this common cultural value that stimulate the customers’ cross-buying intentions in their banks.
Cheap and Clean: Attitudes to Energy in a USA Concerned with Climate Change
By Stephen Ansolabehere and David Konisky
In light of the recent agreement between the US and China to cut greenhouse gas emissions, US climate policy has been the focus of much scrutiny. But how do the American public think about climate change? Is it high on their agenda and what energy policies do they most value? Below Stephen Ansolabehere and David Konisky answer these questions, and others, and demonstrate America’s biggest fears about energy.
Empowering Women Makes Economic Sense
Interview with James Zhan
Foreign investment holds enormous potential for women’s empowerment through the creation of formal jobs and business linkages – and this is good for development. But a recent study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) finds that the operations of multinational companies can also increase women’s vulnerability in the workplace. The World Financial Review quizzes UNCTAD’s Investment and Enterprise Director, James Zhan, who guided the study, about its findings and the policy directions it suggests to guide firms in the right direction.
EDITOR'S PICK OF THE WEEK
The Performance and Transformation Orchestrator: The CFO’s New Mandate in the Age of AI
By Terence Tse
CFOs are evolving into AI-driven transformation orchestrators, balancing finance, technology, and strategy while upskilling teams, managing risks, and driving measurable business value.
A key insight from this year’s AI for CFOs event, organized...
