Analysis

The Big Ten

Finding and defining “logistics clusters” across the United States

Transformation without Taxation

AMLO and Sheinbaum have reorganized political power in Mexico, but they have refused to push through progressive tax reform. Is this balancing act sustainable?

A Global Euro

A roadmap for internationalizing the European currency

COP30 Without the USA

Climate cooperation, forest funds, and the tentative move toward green industries

Missed Opportunities

Vast lithium deposits offer Argentina a chance to pursue development and reindustrialization—but the Milei government is letting it go to waste.

Lithium Experiments

Gabriel Boric's government has revived industrial policy to upgrade Chile's role in the green transition. Yet serious obstacles remain.

Careless Profit

As elder care in Spain has expanded, it has also become a lucrative and financialized industry, putting returns before the needs of residents. How might it be reformed?

After Boric

In his first year of government, Gabriel Boric positioned lithium, copper, and green hydrogen as catalysts for economic transformation. But the recent victory of right-wing presidential candidate José Antonio Kast places the fate of this developmentalist turn into peril.

Between Capitalism and the State-System

The relation between states and markets underpins nearly every major challenge of our time, from climate change, to war, to austerity and sovereign debt.

The Chainsaw and the Miracle

Argentina's midterm elections have given Milei a renewed mandate to slash the state, working in concert with the IMF and US Treasury.

New Dilemmas

With food prices sparking unrest in the so-called "breadbasket of the world," what are the structural trends behind their perpetual rise?

Mexico’s Big Green State

AMLO's government emphasized the importance of state-owned enterprises for reviving Mexico's energy sector. With her announced regulatory reforms, President Claudia Sheinbaum is reorienting these enterprises towards an even more ambitious purpose: decarbonization. Sheinbaum's proposals not only have the potential to transform Mexico's economy; they open a path for experimentation that can inform green transitions around the world.

A State-led Financial Empire

Since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, China has steadily expanded its role in the global financial system. Through cross-border settlement networks, controlled conduits for foreign portfolio flows, and RMB-denominated funding markets, it is incrementally wiring trade, credit, and liquidity provision into RMB-based circuits. The result is a new financial infrastructure that operates alongside, yet increasingly apart from, the dollar system.

Economic Resilience

Years of international isolation and sanctions have prompted Iran to structure its economy to survive various kinds of onslaught. Though it remains exposed to further interruption, Iran’s economy has proven itself resilient in the face of Israel’s campaign. What explains its buoyancy?

Syrian Continuity

A general finding in the study of rebel politics is that groups that come to power without a clear hegemonic position within the rebel movement are vulnerable to spoilers or coups d’etat that push the country back into civil war.

Steel Politics

Since the 1970s, steel production across the Global North has dramatically declined. But steel remains essential to industrial development—and the Green Transition. The history of steel production in Europe and the US, as well as its contemporary rise in China, suggests that the industry cannot be revived without coordinated state intervention and long term public planning.

State of Emergency

The dominance of major business groups in the Ecuador’s national politics has formed an oligarchic neoliberal model, characterized by extreme political polarization, weakened constitutional protections, and a return to indebtedness.

Great Power Antinomies

In recent months, the gradual reversal of US semi-conductor controls has triggered alarm across the national security establishment. But far from a sign of reconciliation, the move signals a transforming imperial logic: one in which American technology becomes indispensible to production and innovation around the world.