Aid & Development

When you have the privilege of working in international relations, there are some experiences that stay with you for life. There are the places you go and the people you meet. Conversations that start at the roundtable, continue into dinner, and often go late into the night. At airports and hotels,

Multilateralism lives With European leaders having just spent five days in close-contact negotiations in Brussels and now Australia’s first offshore ministerial visit for almost five months to Washington, a post-Covid diplomatic agenda is tentatively taking shape. Just what Covid 19 might

States have many tools at their disposal to gain influence and project power. Some opt for pressure, coercion or force. Others seek to build closer people-to-people relationships that offer reciprocal benefits and greater cooperation. Falling somewhere between these two options is “

Nearly a century ago, Dale Carnegie achieved world renown for his book How to Win Friends and Influence People. I’m not sure if it was ever translated into Mandarin, but I’m guessing that Chinese President Xi Jinping has never read it, either way. Perhaps he should. Under Xi’s leadership,

For most people, the first things that likely come to mind when imagining Patagonia in South America are mountains, glaciers, lakes and fjords. But there is also a lesser-known tourist destination: the visitors centre of a Chinese-owned space station in remote north-west Patagonia, Argentina. In

In March, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global ceasefire, urging solidarity against the common threat posed by Covid-19 and stating that the “only war we should be waging is the war against Covid-19”. But while we are all focusing on this new “war”, actual wars are

The Covid-19 pandemic means that more low- and middle-income economies are more reliant on multilateral development banks. Despite the media focus on “mask diplomacy” (or the lack of it) from individual countries, most notably China, development bank lending has been the largest external source

22 April marked the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. While Bill McKibben reminds us of the origins of the celebration, Richard Deverell argues that this year’s event could signal a turning point where we stop taking the planet for granted.New research by Sonia Bhalotra et. al shows that reserving

With confirmed Covid-19 cases now well past the million mark, most of the world is looking inward. Many countries feel overwhelmed by their local fight against the virus. But while some countries are just coping, others face a choice between stopping the pandemic or a famine. Most likely they will

The humanitarian system is facing unprecedented uncertainty in the midst of the biggest pandemic since 1918. Over the last 10 years, the requirements for emergency relief programs have consistently outstripped resources – before the outbreak of Covid-19, efforts were aimed to address the needs of

Millions of people in the developing world are at risk from coronavirus. These countries lack the economic resources and medical infrastructure of their more developed counterparts but can learn lessons from their response and benefit from their support. The situation Earlier this year, when the

A review is underway into Australian aid policy, with consultations run across the country, and the public, scholars, and aid groups alike offering submissions ­– some of which are expected to be released in the coming weeks. Early indications from the Minister for International Development and

Does foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing economies lead to investors shopping around for weak regulations and more pollution, or does it promote green growth? Tim Philips from VoxDev talks to Beata Javorcik, looking at the particular case of Indonesia.Terence Wood and Sherman Surandiran

Eromo Egbejule explains how a tweak to an immigration system in a richer country – such as Canada – can negatively impact a developing one by siphoning skilled professionals. Many are highly educated and would likely make outsize contributions to their own state’s economy, tax revenue, and

By refusing to fill vacancies in the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body, the Trump administration has paralysed the trading system. Anabel González and Euijin Jung argue that the large emerging-market economies – Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Thailand, and others –

By gathering retail prices from around the world, William Masters and colleagues examine the affordability of the EAT-Lancet healthy diet, and find out that many people around the world cannot afford such food.The Kenyan government is forcing importers to use a costly new Chinese-built railway from

To solve the social costs of congestion, such as long commuting times and high pollution, cities in developing counties often turn to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems. But in Indonesia, BRT made things worse. Arya Gaduh et al. look at the case of TransJakarta to understand why.Yuhua Wang explains the