Driven by a near obsession with economic growth, Beijing has extended the state's reach into the economy.

Across the world, the free market is being overtaken by state capitalism, a system in which the state is the leading economic actor. How should the United States respond?

Lobbies representing foreign interests have an increasingly powerful -- and often harmful -- impact on how the United States formulates its foreign policy, and ultimately hurt U.S. credibility around the world.

Japan should not apologize for its past aggression by emulating the contrition that Germany has displayed since the mid-1960s because it would risk a nationalist backlash.

Democratic institutions cannot be set up easily; they are likely to emerge only when certain social and cultural conditions exist.

Financial sanctions have become a key tool of U.S. foreign policy. Measures taken against Iran and North Korea make clear that this new financial statecraft can be effective, but true success will require persuading global banks to accept a shared sense of risk.

The financial crisis has called into serious question the credibility of western governments and may precipitate an eastward shift of power.

Trade problems are an underlying cause of the financial crisis. To truly revive the world economy, a new trade consensus is necessary.

The current economic crisis may have one winner: the Chinese financial model, which -- together with the IMF -- holds the keys to fixing the problem.

The next president must bring back a sound dollar, rein in Wall Street, and resist the urge to manipulate prices.

Whatever the economic gains under Putin, they would have been greater under a democratic regime.

The prosperity of the United States and China depends on helping China further integrate into the global economic system.

Debating Venezuela's progress.

Sebastian Mallaby's update to his January/February 2007 essay "Hands Off Hedge Funds."

The former chief economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly argues that despite Hugo Chavez's pledge to fight poverty, the Venezuelan president's economic policies have hurt the poor most of all.

This Foreign Affairs article argues against U.S. policymakers pushing China to revalue its currency.

Globalization has brought huge overall benefits, but earnings for most U.S. workers -- even those with college degrees -- have been falling recently; inequality is greater now than at any other time in the last 70 years. Whatever the cause, the result has been a surge in protectionism. To save globalization, policymakers must spread its gains more widely. The best way to do that is by redistributing income.

Global financial instability has sparked a surge in "monetary nationalism" -- the idea that countries must make and control their own currencies. But globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.

Protectionist sentiment on Capitol Hill threatens to scuttle Washington's free-trade agenda. A bipartisan consensus on trade could emerge, but only if the White House and the Democrats can reach a compromise on labor issues.

Not long ago, the expansion of free trade worldwide seemed inevitable. Over the last few years, however, economic barriers have started to rise once more. The forecast for the future looks mixed: some integration will probably continue even as a new economic nationalism takes hold. Managing this new, muddled world will take deft handling, in Washington, Brussels, and Beijing.