Governance

For a part of the world that doesn't have a lot of freedom, the Middle East certainly has a lot of elections that count. On May 16, Kuwaitis elected a new parliament, sending women to the chamber for the first time. On June 7, Lebanese will go to the polls, and five days later, Iranians will have their turn.

On May 17, incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won a famous victory in the 15th general election to the lower house of India’s Parliament, the Lok Sabha. Exceeding the most optimistic pre-election forecast of even his party’s pollsters, the governing Congress Party secured 206 seats out of a possible 543.

Since the onset of the financial crisis there have been suggestions to form a G-2 consisting of the United States and China. This proposal is based on the facts that China is the largest creditor of the U.S., the U.S. is China’s biggest export destination, and the strong interdependence of their two economies provides a foundation for joint action that can shape the global economy.

East Asian members of the G20 must participate strategically in this emerging global forum. They need to make sure that the G20 can produce policies and actions that will help bring the global economy out of the current crisis as soon as possible.

Para abordar el problema de la ética y la transparencia en el gobierno municipal, el Programa de las Américas del CSIS realizó una conferencia el 14 de Noviembre de 2008, que reunió a los alcaldes de dos importantes ciudades de América Latina, los directores de las principales ONG dedicadas a la buena gobernabilidad, y donantes internacionales que se concentra

Will Asia’s future see increasing economic interdependence and cooperation or growing power rivalry and confrontation?

To address the problem of ethics and transparency in municipal government, the CSIS Americas Program held a conference on November 14, 2008, that brought together mayors of two important Latin American cities, heads of leading NGOs dedicated to good governance, and international donors focused on the topic.