OXFORD — Eighty years after the architecture of modern international law was forged from the ashes of the Second World War, the global human rights regime faces an existential crisis of legitimacy. Across established democracies, a rising nationalist-populist tide has cast foundational human rights treaties not as shields for the…
By Stephen S. Roach Published: September 30, 2026 Location: New Haven, Connecticut Introduction: The Illusion of Progress While expectations for the high-stakes summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were exceptionally low heading into the meeting, the reality of the encounter still managed to disappoint. Rather…
SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, the foundational narrative of modern finance was built on a singular, frictionless premise: globalization. The conventional wisdom dictated that capital markets would inevitably march toward greater integration. Borders would blur, transaction costs would plummet toward zero, technology would democratize access, and a unified global financial…
CAMBRIDGE — For the better part of a decade, the diagnosis of America’s democratic distress has enjoyed a seemingly airtight consensus among populists, progressives, and policy wonks alike: the system is broken because the economy is rigged. According to this reigning paradigm, the root cause of the nation’s profound political…
CAMBRIDGE — It has become a standard refrain across living rooms, cable news studios, and academic halls across the United States: the American political system is broken. For years, diagnosticians of the American malaise have pointed their fingers at widening economic divides. The prevailing narrative suggests that the root cause…
By Jeffrey Frankel Cambridge | September 25, 2026 Main Facts The United States political system is suffering from a profound and deepening crisis of governance, characterized by unprecedented polarization, legislative gridlock, and a complete breakdown of bipartisan consensus. While conventional political discourse frequently attributes this decay to runaway economic inequality…
ITHACA, NEW YORK — Over the past decade, scholars, economists, and journalists have observed the relentless march of digital technology with a complex mixture of hope and profound anxiety. There is hope because of the measurable rise in living standards, the democratization of information, and the medical breakthroughs that the…
