Since 1988, Brazilians have cleared more than 153,000 square miles of Amazonian rain forest, devastating the environment and driving global climate change forward ever faster. Recently, however, Brazil has changed its course, reducing the rate of deforestation by 83 percent since 2004. At the same time, it has become a test case for a controversial international climate-change prevention strategy that places a monetary value on the carbon stored in forests.
Julia E. Sweig assesses the recent shift in Mexico's narrative under the newly inaugurated president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and the implications of this shift for Brazil.
Over the past several years, the most talked-about trend in the global economy has been the so-called rise of the rest, which saw the economies of many developing countries swiftly converging with those of their more developed peers.
While a new round of U.S. quantitative easing will have a negative impact on emerging markets like Brazil, the country should not blame U.S. monetary policy for the structural flaws in its economy, says expert Bernardo Wjuniski.
Authors: Shannon K. O'Neil, Richard Lapper, Larry Rohter, Ronaldo Lemos, and Ruchir Sharma
Brazil's rise never depended on the sale of commodities, and thanks to recent reforms, the country will continue to prosper, write Shannon O'Neil, Richard Lapper, and Larry Rohter. Ronaldo Lemos, meanwhile, claims that those reforms have not gone far enough.
After emerging from the 2008 financial crisis relatively unscathed, Brazil's inevitable entrance into the club of major global powers is increasingly accepted. CFR's Stewart M. Patrick and Carlos Simonsen Leal of the Brazilian Getulio Vargas Foundation discuss Brazil's perspective on global finance and international security.
Julia E. Sweig measures the balance between market and state in a review of David Rothkopf's latest book, Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry between Big Business and Government and the Reckoning that Lies Ahead.
During the Brazilian president's visit to the Unied Sates, Brazil and America should find a common ground to confront China over financial and economic policies that harm Brazilian and American companies, says Ted Piccone, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
The emerging BRICS economies agree that the West should hold less sway in the global economy. But their leaders, despite regular summits, have failed to articulate a coherent vision because of divergent interests, says journalist Martin Wolf.
The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.
The author analyzes the potentially serious consequences, both at home and abroad, of a lightly overseen drone program and makes recommendations for improving its governance.
