Looking Backward and Forward Policy Issues in the Twenty-first Century

by Wolf Jr., Charles

• ISBN13: 9780817948726
• ISBN10: 0817948724
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: Hoover Institution Press

Summary

This collection of twenty-five essays written over the past five years by international economic policy expert Charles Wolf Jr. covers a range of worldwide economic, political, security, and diplomatic issues. Wolf looks at the challenges facing the United States at home and around the globe including critical issues regarding China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Iraq, and other key locales. These essays-many of which originally appeared in such respected publications as the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the International Herald Tribune, among others-reflect the pattern of policy issues to expect in the twenty-first century: a variety and complexity of themes that spill over the standard boundaries of political, economic, and military affairs.

Author Biography

Charles Wolf Jr. is a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and holds the distinguished corporate chair in international economics at the RAND Corporation

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Preface	p. xi
China
Capitalism, Chinese Style	p. 3
Foreign Investment Leverages China's Growth	p. 9
Fault Lines in China's Economic Terrain	p. 13
China's Currency Dilemma and How to Resolve It	p. 19
More about the Chinese Currency	p. 23
Two Major Problems Confronting China: One Hard, the Other Harder	p. 27
U.S.-China Relations: Mostly Partners, Sometimes Rivals	p. 31
Other Asia
Japan's Comfortable Stagnation	p. 37
Dealing with North Korea: Unilateralism, Bilateralism, or Multilateralism?	p. 43
Kim Jong-Il's Financial Bind	p. 47
Other Regions
Europe's Unilateralism May Have a Brighter Side	p. 55
Absent Weapons Don't Imply Faulty Intelligence	p. 59
Resolving the UN Dilemma	p. 63
What if Iraq Had Not Been Invaded?	p. 67
How Sunni Capitalism Can Trump Sunni Insurgency	p. 71
Signs of Regress and Progress in Russia's Economy	p. 75
The Global View
The Case for Selective Unilateralism	p. 83
Whether Multilateralism Is Better or Worse than Unilateralism Is, Well, Situation-Dependent	p. 89
Traditional Allies Are Not Permanent Allies	p. 95
The Principal Global Imbalance Lies Elsewhere	p. 99
The United States
Doomsday for the Doomsayers?	p. 105
The Mythology Surrounding Energy Security	p. 109
Efficient Equity Markets Require Smarter Investors	p. 115
Public Diplomacy: How to Think about and Improve It (coauthored with Brian Rosen)	p. 121
Liberals and Conservatives: Who's What and Where?	p. 149
About the Author	p. 155
Index	p. 157
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