It was the god Zeus who seduced the beautiful girl Europa. He turned into a virile white bull and took her on his back to Crete. In a similar way, some people are trying to seduce Europe into playing a more positive and proactive role in addressing worldwide problems such as climate change, growing inequity and violent conflicts. But although Europe may be a shining example of a group of states that used to fight each other to the death and now cooperate internally, as an alternative on the world scene to the US and emerging superpowers like China, it still looks like a little calf on wobbly legs.   read more >>

In the debate on how to combat poverty, policymakers frequently claim that multinational corporations can make a positive contribution by practising corporate social responsibility (CSR). But CSR initiatives are often no match for an issue as complex as poverty alleviation.   read more >>

Since the end of the Cold War, rapid progress in commercial technology, along with the War on Terror and international peace enforcing missions, have been driving precision and remote control warfare. But these weapons do not fulfil the promise of ‘bloodless’ war.   read more >>

Governments and institutes devote immense resources to learning how to avoid a relapse into war in post-conflict situations. But there is only a limited focus on preventing conflict in seemingly stable regions that are actually susceptible to violence.   read more >>

Politicians are calling for evaluations that measure the effects of development cooperation. However, good development cooperation focuses on long-term processes that cannot be measured in terms of cause and effect. Alternative approaches to evaluation are needed.   read more >>

‘The economics profession underwent a revolution in December last year, as economic understanding of the world suddenly shifted’, wrote Branko Milanovic, an economist with the World Bank, last February. 1 This may have seemed like a bit of an exaggeration – particularly because these groundbreaking changes seemed to have gone unnoticed by the rest of the development community and others involved in poverty reduction. But, according to Milanovic, spending power in China and India had fallen by 40%, by 17% in Indonesia, 41% in the Philippines, 32% in South Africa and 24% in Argentina.   read more >>

Recently, I was asked to say a few words on Dutch national radio about the global skyrocketing of food prices. Expecting that it would be an ego-boosting experience, I eagerly accepted. However, things did not quite work out as planned. I shocked the interviewer by pointing out the benefits associated with the current food price crisis. Benefits? He gasped for air and cried out, ‘Riots in Haiti and elsewhere; widespread hunger among the urban poor in developing countries; UK prime minister Brown saying the food crisis is worse than the financial crisis hitting the globe; runaway inflation in the far East and now the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns that the food crisis can trigger civil wars – are you sure we are talking about the same issue?’   read more >>

Europe is the world’s leading provider of official development assistance (ODA). The EU and its member states account for 60% of all development moneys. Africa alone receives roughly US $14 billion a year from its northern neighbours. But is Europe also an agenda setter in the global development arena? Not quite. Authoritative paradigms and policies have always originated in Washington and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York. Sindre Ellin...   read more >>