International Trade

In the early 1990s, North America was the vibrant center of an increasingly democratic and revitalized western hemisphere. The United States and Canada were close allies working together to implement a bilateral free trade agreement and build an integrated manufacturing and export economy. By the late 2000s, the economic and diplomatic ties between the two countries were strained as policies stagnated or slipped backward and passports were needed to cross the border for the first time in history.

Rising tensions between China and the United States have kept the financial markets on edge as a showdown between the world's two largest economies seems inevitable. But what most people fail to recognize is the major impact that the financial markets themselves have had on the creation and acceleration of the conflict. In Financial Cold War, market structure and geopolitical finance expert James Fok explores the nuances of China-US relations from the perspective of the financial markets.

Situated about 25 miles off the Tanzanian coast, Zanzibar, with its sultans and spices, merchants and mosques, dhows and doorways of richly carved timber, has captured the imagination of travelers and writers for hundreds of years. It has long evoked a romantic mystique, calling up images of an island paradise in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Its gleaming Muslim Swahili town, built of white coralline limestone, can trace approximately 1,000 years of maritime trading.

The Shadow World is the harrowing behind-the-scenes tale of the global arms trade, revealing the deadly collusion that all too often exists among senior politicians, weapons manufacturers, felonious arms dealers, and the military—a situation that compromises our security and undermines our democracy.

Two opposing narratives vie to explain the strategic future of Europe, one geopolitical and one economic, and both center on the same resource: natural gas. In The Bridge, Thane Gustafson, an expert on Russian oil and gas, argues that the political rivalries that capture the lion's share of media attention must be viewed alongside multiple business interests and differences in economic ideologies. With a dense network of pipelines linking Europe and Russia, natural gas serves as a bridge that unites the region through common interests.

This is the inside story of the US-China trade war, how relations between these superpowers unraveled, darkening prospects for global peace and prosperity, as told by two Wall Street Journal reporters, one based in Washington, DC, the other in Beijing, who have had more access to the decision-makers in the White House and in China’s Zhongnanhai leadership compound than anyone else.

In 1784, when Americans first voyaged to China, they confronted Chinese authorities who were unaware that the United States even existed. Nevertheless, a long, complicated, and fruitful trade relationship was born after American traders, missionaries, diplomats, and others sailed to China with lofty ambitions: to acquire fabulous wealth, convert China to Christianity, and even command a Chinese army. In America's First Adventure in China, John Haddad provides a colourful history of the evolving cultural exchange and interactions between these countries.

When Arthur B. Laffer spearheaded the theory of supply-side economics and became a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board, he took his place as an economic icon. More recently, he joined with Stephen Moore and Peter J. Tanous to write The End of Prosperity - a clarion call delineating what is wrong with current political approaches to America's present economic challenges.

Though mankind has traded tangible goods for millennia, recent technology has changed the fundamentals of trade, in both legitimate and illegal economies. In the past three decades, the most advanced forms of illicit trade have broken with all historical precedents and, as Dark Commerce tells, now operate as if on steroids, tied to computers and social media. Author Louise Shelley examines how new technology, communications, and globalization fuel the exponential growth of dangerous forms of illegal trade and considers diverse ways of responding to this increasing challenge.

Most global citizens are well aware of the explosive growth of the Chinese economy. Indeed, China has famously become the "workshop of the world." Yet, while China watchers have shed much light on the country's internal dynamics - China's politics, its vast social changes, and its economic development - few have focused on how this increasingly powerful nation has become more active and assertive throughout the world.

In each cup of coffee we drink the major issues of the twenty-first century - globalization, immigration, women's rights, pollution, indigenous rights, war and peace, and self-determination - are played out in villages and remote areas around the world. In Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee, a unique hybrid of Fair Trade business, adventure travel, and cultural anthropology, brings readers face-to-face with the real people who make our morning coffee ritual possible.

Baer goes behind the scenes to show how the U.S. willingly overlooked the corruption of the Saudi royal family, its financing of violent Islamic fundamentalist groups that spread hatred of the West throughout Saudi society, and its bribery of American officials. From a close-up with a corrupt Arab family to the inside scoop on how we helped fund the Taliban, Baer shows what's at stake in our pursuit of oil.

Trump in America, Brexit in the UK, anti-EU parties in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and Hungary, and nativist or authoritarian leaders in Turkey, Russia, India, and China - why has nationalism suddenly returned with a vengeance? Is the world headed back to the fractious conflicts between nations that led to world wars and depression in the early 20th Century? Why are nationalists so angry about free trade and immigration? Why has globalization become a dirty word?

If Europe is to return to an innovative and dynamic economy - and if there is to be shared prosperity, social solidarity, and justice - then EU countries need to break with their current, destructive trajectory. This volume offers concrete strategies for renewal that would also reinvigorate the project of European integration, with fresh ideas in the areas of both macroeconomics and microeconomics, including central banking, public investment, corporate governance and competition policy, social policy, and international trade.

A wake-up call for middle class Americans who feel trapped in a post-crisis economic slump, The Unfair Trade is a riveting exposé of the vast global financial system whose flaws are the source of our economic malaise. Our livelihoods are now beholden to the workings of its imbalances and inequities. The trillions of dollars that make up the flow of international finance - money often steered away from people who deserve it most - have not just undermined the lives of working and middle class Americans.

Every Western business leader wants to know more about China in order to enjoy a greater chance of business success in China. They also need to understand how and why Chinese businesses are spreading throughout the world, particularly under the new "One Belt, One Road" initiative. However, few seek advice from those who best know the answers - Chinese business people. In Unlocking the Emperor's Door, we utilize exclusive and unparalleled access to multi-billionaire Li Jinyuan and his multinational Tiens Group as a case study

Sorto nel 1995 per governare e sviluppare il commercio internazionale, considerato un fattore chiave della crescita in tutti i paesi, già nel 1999 il WTO è il principale bersaglio della protesta no global che esplode a Seattle e mette sotto accusa la sua politica di liberalizzazione. Ma come funziona realmente il WTO? Come vengono prese le decisioni al suo interno e qual è il suo ruolo nelle controversie commerciali tra i vari paesi?

When Nick gets his first assignment from the shadowy Japanese intelligence agency he joined after fleeing the UK, it seems easy enough. All he has to do is play the babysitter and escort a retired MI6 agent to a safe house. But when Nick discovers why the agent needs help, the game changes. What was done secretly 20 years ago still has the power to ruin lives. But there’s no one else left alive who knows anything about it.

Lange galt China als eine Art sanfter, schlafender Riese. Zwar war das politische System und dessen Menschenrechtsverletzungen nur schwer vereinbar mit westlichen demokratischen Werten, doch man setzte auf das Prinzip »Wandel durch Handel«. China würde sich mit steigendem Wohlstand schon öffnen. Doch das Gegenteil ist eingetreten: China verschließt sich nach außen, hat aber enorm an wirtschaftlichen und politischen Einfluss gewonnen. Bereits seit 2013 schafft die kommunistische Partei mit Krediten, Investitionen und Entwicklungsprojekten neue Absatzmärkte und hat neue Seidenstraßen erschlossen.

Globalization, long considered the best route to economic prosperity, is not inevitable. An approach built on the principles of free trade and, since the 1980s, open capital markets is beginning to fracture. With disappointing growth rates across the Western world, nations are no longer willing to sacrifice national interests for global growth, nor are their leaders able - or willing - to sell the idea of pursuing a global agenda of prosperity to their citizens.