The UN embodies the best of humanity – the belief that all people deserve basic dignity, and that working together is the only way to deliver it. Seventy-five years after its birth, the world – beginning with the United States – must revive that belief, and recommit to the multilateralism that it demands. As the United Nations marks its 75th anniversary, the world is in turmoil. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in nearly one million deaths so far and is nowhere close to being contained. The world economy is experiencing its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.…

True is the saying that success has many fathers but failure is an orphan! While those on the sunny and shiny side of success are wont to beat their chest and amplify, even exaggerate, their contributions, those responsible for failure, as it were, are wont to shift blames and pass the buck. That has been playing out since last Saturday’s Edo state governorship election. Incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki of the PDP won while Mr Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the APC lost, both of them twice in a row. A post-mortem of the election started even before it was concluded. Seeing the…

For the past 50 years, the West has clung to the hope that modernization would automatically transform China into a capitalist liberal democracy. For decades, maintaining this illusion was good for the bottom line, but now the implications of China's ascendancy have become disturbingly clear. The confrontation between China and the West is escalating almost daily. The conflict is about technology, trade, global market share, and supply chains, but also about fundamental values. Underpinning this economic and ideological competition is the goal of global predominance in the twenty-first century. But why is the current escalation happening now? It is not…

In the wake of Covid-19, some economists are calling for developing countries to shift from industrialization to services, or even to bypass the manufacturing stage of development altogether. But blind faith in services-led growth is a dangerous illusion, and the arguments supporting it are deeply flawed. As the world prepares for the post-pandemic era, the quest for sustainable economic growth is becoming ever more intense – especially for developing countries. It is tempting to call for these countries – the main engine of global growth in recent decades – to shift their development strategies from industrialization to services. As new…