What strategy should the U.S. pursue in confronting ISIL and addressing the broader challenges of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, stability in the Persian Gulf, and the ever-present Israeli-Palestinian dispute? Leadership and engagement play a part, of course, but they must be subservient to a U.S. strategy whose objective is to protect and, if possible, advance our core interests in the region.
The relationship between Mexico and Texas is in dire need of reassessment, given the chasm between the reality of the countries’ economic and cultural relationship and the political rhetoric that surrounds it.
Kenneth Medlock, senior director at the Center for Energy Studies, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Small Business on June 17. Medlock testified for the committee’s hearing, “Crude Intentions: The Untold Story of the Ban, the Oil Industry and America’s Small Businesses.” He discussed the latest CES study, “To Lift or Not to Lift? The U.S. Crude Oil Export Ban: Implications for Price and Energy Security,” which analyzes the economic and energy security impacts of the 40-year-old ban on oil exports.
The accession of a new king in Saudi Arabia and the kingdom’s intervention in Yemen have overshadowed important moves to reform two of the kingdom’s key institutions. Incoming King Salman has taken steps to prepare Saudi Arabia for a new generation of leaders, both within the royal family and among the world’s largest oil export sector and its marquee company, Saudi Aramco. The changes involve installing new personalities into key positions and shifting the roles of long-serving managers. "Overall, the moves ought to enhance the resilience of the kingdom and its economy by shifting leadership responsibilities to a younger generation," writes fellow Jim Krane.
This report reviews the key concepts and themes that emerged from the conference “Divided Societies, Volatile States: The Politics of Identity Post-Arab Spring,” hosted by the Baker Institute Center for the Middle East on March 10, 2015.
As Congress resumes work this spring on a bill granting Trade Promotion Authority to President Obama for completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, many members have sought inclusion of a chapter on currency manipulation. Currency manipulation is a legitimate concern. However, countermeasures require clear, objective identification of currency manipulation. Both the IMF and the U.S. Treasury Department have mandates to identify currency manipulation, yet neither has done so in the past 20 years. If it can be done, why has it not happened more often?
In this issue brief, Russell Green, Will Clayton Fellow in International Economics, reviews the difficulties of operationalizing a currency manipulation chapter and argues that the difficulty of identifying currency manipulation suggests serious political obstacles to implementation.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is starting her second term in office facing economic and political problems that feed into each other. These problems can be attributed to a large extent to mistakes her administration made during her first term. Rousseff’s macroeconomic policy proved to be inconsistent, and the choices she made in some key economic sectors, especially energy, were demonstrably disastrous. Rousseff now faces
the enormous challenge of reconciling the leftwing populism that led her to victory with the inescapable need
to regain the trust of the most dynamic sectors of Brazilian society, including the private sector.
This study examines the effects of lifting the 40-year-old U.S. crude export ban on crude pricing, energy security and energy sector investment. It includes a statistical analysis that explains what the relationship would be between the prices of crudes of different qualities in an unconstrained setting, which, according to author Ken Medlock, is important to providing a more accurate assessment of the impact of current U.S. policy.
