Economic and Political Development
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Building a Stable Syria: The Omani Model
This article examines how Oman’s sectarian plurality among its citizen population, dating back to the founding of the Sultanate in 1970 under Sultan Qaboos after a British-backed coup, remains stable. We'll also use Yemen, since its founding as the Republic of Yemen in 1990, as a counterexample to Oman to illustrate how politicized identity structures can lead to disaster. We'll then examine how thesee two case studies can inform the reform of a post-Assad Syria toward long-term stability.Explore all Articles
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Beyond Just Credit
12.10.12
BY SHLOKA NATH Driving from Rae Bareli to Amethi, two districts in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), you will be hard pressed to find evidence of India’s strident economic progress. Everywhere you turn, roads are terrible, electricity is sparse and poverty and destitution run deep. With more than 200 million people, UP […]
Riding the African Lions
11.18.12
A man in a freshly pressed Calvin Klein suit, sporting Aviator sunglasses, stands on the corner of a busy street cradling his laptop case and yelling over the din into his Blackberry. Moments later he gets into his new Honda and races away. This could be an observation made on the streets of New York […]
From Genocide to 3G: Innovations in Rwanda
04.1.12
BY JOHN VRAKAS Standing in the heart of a village in northwestern Rwanda, a farmer named Eusebe faces a dilemma. Traders have offered him 36,000 Rwandan francs (RWF), or about US $60 per ton, for his plantains. He hesitates; the farmer knows this is a profitable price, but he has no idea if it’s a […]
Beginning the End of Slums: How Micro-Mortgages Serve the Poor
04.1.12
BY NISHANT LALWANI It’s a hot Saturday morning in Ahmedabad, India—the last before the monsoons start—and Leeladhar Bhatt Hall is packed with visitors. Hundreds of people have gathered here to attend a two-day customer evaluation session by the Micro Housing Finance Company (MHFC). MHFC has partnered with a builder that is constructing apartments on the […]
Needles in the Haystack: How a New Tool Is Unlocking Entrepreneurship in Africa
04.1.12
If you want to learn a thing or two about business, just ask Leah Mugure Mwaura. Leah is a charming Kenyan grandmother and owner of a clothing wholesale business in Gikomba, a sprawling, dusty, crowded place on the outskirts of Nairobi that is now East Africa’s largest market. Every day, tens of thousands of Kenyans […]