The Chinese and Indian economies often elicit breathless admiration from commentators. In fact, domestic deficiencies and regional tensions mean that the rise of China and India is hardly assured.

The United States' commitment to helping treat HIV patients is limiting Washington's leverage over recipient countries and undermining other development goals.

Although the wary are fretting about China's unprecedented financial might, Beijing's policies -- hoarding foreign currency reserves and sending money abroad -- have so far been better for other countries than for China itself.

After World War II, "trading states" seemed to be charting a new path forward. But small was not beautiful. Even great powers found themselves negotiating larger markets through economic associations with others. It's time the United States became such a power.

Financial regulation must be the task of individual governments and not multilateral committees.

Growing demand for energy in developing countries and calls for greener energy worldwide are putting unprecedented pressure on the global energy system.

Strict export restrictions are making U.S. businesses less competitive and the country less secure. Policymakers must craft new regulations to help, rather than harm, U.S. interests.

The global economic crisis has revealed the folly of large U.S. budget and trade deficits, as well as of the strong dollar that makes them possible.

Vali Nasr's impressive book concludes that the triumph of free markets in the Middle east can defeat extremism and promote social liberalization. But just how will this happen?

The global flow of remittances represents the link between migration and development. If the world's largest economies are serious about recovery, they should make money transfers as easy and cheap as possible.

Despite common assumptions, oil prices are likely to remain low for a while: key producers, especially Saudi Arabia, have been boosting their production, and demand growth in top consumers like the United States and China will be more modest than expected.

The economic crisis is hurting the world's top currency. But the pound, the yen, the euro, the renminbi, and the IMF's accounting currency are no match for the dollar. At least for now.

The popularity of the U.S. economic model is waning. To put globalization back on track, President Barack Obama must articulate the benefits of open markets and free trade.

For decades, Asian economies used exports to the West as a means of growth. Now, if they hope to weather the global recession, they will have to enact deep structural changes such as higher wages and increased domestic consumption.

Many economies in Africa have remained largely sheltered from the global financial crisis. To keep economic development there on track, the West must avoid protectionist impulses.

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.