Sustainable urban transportation choices

DEBORAH GORDON of the Energy and Climate program at the Carnegie Endowment and DANIEL SPERLING, director of University of California Davis' Institute of Transportation Studies state that the global proliferation of vehicles presented two alternatives: one where cheap oil, free roads, sprawled development and subsidized home ownership would result in a foreboding car monoculture and an alternative option involving low-carbon, location-efficient, economically productive mobility where  Government, industry, and consumers—especially in emerging economies—could reinvent transportation models and employ innovative solutions. 

In their European Financial Review article "Critical Crossroad: Advancing Global Opportunities to Transform Transportation", they state that the proliferation of automobiles alongwith the the rise of megacities would spur a spiraling motorization process that would result in unhealthy, inefficient, unsustainable cities and crushing financial burdens and advocate an intervention to move away from wasteful transportation system to more sustainable, diverse approach that mimics natural ecosystem with the direct involvement of business, government, and consumers that would transform vehicles, transform fuels, and transform mobility.

They state that transportation could be redesigned as a system and not be bound to a single mode and provide examples of cutting-edge cities which were leading the way on a number of fronts, using strategic policy tools to advance low-carbon mobility.

Sino-Pak nuclear collaboration

ASHLEY TELLIS of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recommends that Washington should lead forcefully in urging China to rethink its plans to sell civilian nuclear reactors to Pakistan claiming that Beijing had a lot at stake if it chose to renege on its NSG obligations. In an opinion piece for the Wall Street, "Stop the Sino-Pak Nuclear Pact", he states that China's plans had raised alarms in foreign capitals given Pakistan's fragile leadership, and an implicit threat to withhold the forms of cooperation that China desire would convince Beijing to reconsider its decision.

Future role of the WTO

URI DADUSH of the Carnegie Endowment states that the efficacy of the WTO has been reduced due to increasing difficulty in enacting comprehensive multilateral agreements driven by deepening international integration, increasing influence of new players, and growing trade complexity. In an article for the International Economic Bulletin, "The Future of the World Trading System", he states that despite the recent stalling of the WTO, world trade had advanced at unprecedented rates and that the WTO could reaffirm its leadership role by promoting regional and plurilateral liberalization processes to existing agreements.

LeT in Pakistan's strategy

ASHLEY TELLIS of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace states that Lashkar-e-Taiba's global presence and its sponsorship by the Pakistani military and ISI due to a similar ethnic composition and ideological sympathies enhanced the prospect of major war and global consequences. In an article for Yale Global, "Pakistan and the Afghanistan End Game", he states that Washington had now reached the conclusion that LeT represents a threat to America’s national interests while Pakistan's military leaders continued to harbor the illusion that their current strategy of unleashing terrorism would enervate India, push it out of Afghanistan, and weaken US stabilization efforts there and such a strategy would come to nought.

Degrading the LeT network

STEPHEN TANKEL of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace profiles the growth of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) network from its origins during the anti-Soviet jihad to its current role as Pakistani military's strategic asset against India with a support network stretched throughout the subcontinent, the Gulf and the West. In a policy brief for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, "The Long Arm of Lashkar-e-Taiba", he concludes that the West had to compel Islamabad to use its leverage to prevent any LeT attack against India and also degrade its transnational network.

How to remain Sheriff ?

ASHLEY TELLIS of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace calls on the US and the West to pursue twin objectives of deepening globalization while simultaneously investing in preserving its military superiority in the wake of increasing Chinese national power. In a paper for the German Marshall Fund "Power Shift: How the West Can Adapt and Thrive in an Asian Century", he prescribes increasing coordination between the transatlantic allies to ensure deepening economic interdependence, multifaceted diplomatic engagement of Beijing not being hostage to single-issue politics such as human rights etc. and continued enhancement of the national power and the constituent military prowess of the United States as the global arbiter of security.

China's century? or not?

MINXIN PEI at the China Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace expresses skepticism at conventional wisdom that the Great Recession helped China more than any other state pointing out that the Chinese themselves were not impressed about predictions of their dominance. In a Newsweek article, "Why China Won't Rule the World", he points to inefficient lending, projected delinquencies, overcapacities, rising ethnic separatism and lack of leadership in global fora to assert that there is still a wide gap between Western and Chinese perceptions of the Chinese century.