Showing 1 - 8 of 8
Authoritarians' brave new cities
Oped, Robert Muggah & Carlo Ratti, Published on 23/09/2025
» Few policy ideas are as radical -- or as misleadingly packaged -- as "freedom cities". Championed by Silicon Valley's techno-libertarian elite and recently embraced by right-wing politicians like Donald Trump, the idea is to create digitally powered, master-planned enclaves of deregulated innovation.
Future utopias stumble over governance
Oped, Joe Mathews, Published on 20/08/2025
» In 2020, the rapper Akon declared he would build his own eponymous city on the site of the coastal village of Mbodiène, Senegal.
Chasing 'sovereignty partnerships'
Oped, Marc Abensour, Published on 04/06/2025
» In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron laid the foundations for France's strategy for the Indo-Pacific, a region that is becoming the new centre of gravity of the global economy but is also experiencing growing tensions and increased competition between major powers. As a resident nation in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans through its overseas territories and communities, France has a direct stake in the region's stability and development. In this context, France wants to act as a stabilising force and to promote effective multilateralism based on the rule of law, inclusivity and respect for sovereignty.
Are all of us ready for AI creative destruction?
Oped, Daron Acemoglu, Published on 24/04/2024
» The ancient Chinese concept of yin and yang attests to humans' tendency to see patterns of interlocked opposites in the world around us, a predilection that has lent itself to various theories of natural cycles in social and economic phenomena. Just as the great medieval Arab philosopher Ibn Khaldun saw the path of an empire's eventual collapse imprinted in its ascent, the twentieth-century economist Nikolai Kondratiev postulated that the modern global economy moves in "long wave" super-cycles.
When private corporations subvert states
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 12/12/2023
» Imagine a scenario where a private company effectively creates and controls its own jurisdiction within a sovereign country. This company introduces its own currency, enacts laws, and establishes courts, prisons, police forces, and even intelligence services. It formulates its own tax, labour, and environmental regulations (or lack thereof), regardless of their compatibility with national laws.
France's latest crude, culinary counter-offensive
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/09/2023
» The French government has just published a decree banning the use of terms like "steak", "spare ribs" and "ham" on plant-based foods. Sausages and "poultry nuggets" will escape the ban so long as the plant protein content is less than 6%.
Quitting what you're doing while still on top
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 16/02/2023
» Last month, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's 42-year-old prime minister, resigned from office, despite the support of a solid parliamentary majority and no challenge to her leadership from within her party. New Zealanders have to go back only six years to find a precedent. In 2016, John Key surprised everyone when, at the age of 55, he made way for his deputy to take over.
Asian retailers face 'new normal'
Oped, Charles Ormiston, Marc-André Kamel, Derek Keswakaroon & Gwendolyn Lim, Published on 13/05/2020
» Grocery retailers in the world learned from Asia's early experience confronting Covid-19. Now, Asian executive teams are at the forefront of the retail sector's next challenge -- to accelerate into the recovery.