Research Library

The BRICS clearly want something tangible to demonstrate their global prominence and the power of non-Western values. Russell Green examines the critical issues that must be resolved before the BRICS bank can open its doors.

A Malaysian airliner with 298 people on board crashed in Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, amid allegations it was shot down. Baker Institute fellow Joe Barnes examines the possible diplomatic ramifications of the tragedy in the Baker Institute Blog.

Peter Hotez, fellow in disease and poverty, proposes ways for countries around the world to increase their reliance on vaccine diplomacy in their foreign policy approaches.

President Obama’s commencement address at West Point on Wednesday was clearly aimed at deflecting rising criticism of his administration’s foreign policy. In particular, the speech was designed to address complaints that U.S. foreign policy under Obama has lacked strategic coherence and signaled a U.S. retreat from the international arena. The administration promoted the address as a platform for the president to describe his “vision” for U.S. foreign policy during the remainder of his term. To the extent that the speech did present a vision, it was not a particularly new one.

Fossil fuel subsidies have allowed energy exporting countries to distribute resource revenue, bolstering legitimacy for governments, many of which are not democratically elected. But subsidy benefits are dwarfed by the harmful consequences of encouraging uneconomic use of energy. Now, with consumption posing a threat to long-term exports, governments face a heightened need to raise prices that have come to be viewed as entitlements. While reforms of state benefits are notoriously politically dangerous, previous experience shows that subsidies can be rolled back without undermining government legitimacy — even in autocratic settings — given proper preparation.

Joe Barnes, the institute's Bonner Means Baker Fellow, blogs on concern in Kyiv, Washington and European capitals — not too far-fetched, given Russia’s seizure of Crimea last month — that Moscow might invade Eastern Ukraine on the pretext of protecting Russian speakers.

The situation in Ukraine is the most serious foreign policy challenge ever faced by the Obama administration, writes Rice faculty scholar Richard Stoll.

A paper discussing the nature of natural gas pricing in Asia and forecasting changes in the pricing paradigm as well as the global market.

Two cheers for the interim agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. It is welcome, if not earth-shattering news.

The new leadership in Doha is entering a “post-Arab Spring” regional landscape that is almost diametrically opposed to the propitious convergence of Qatari interests and the revolutionary upheaval in North Africa in 2011.