The U.S. decision to assassinate Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in January inadvertently also caused the death of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the powerful and influential head of Kataib Hezbollah and de facto head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). While commentators have focused on Soleimani, the death of Muhandis has broad implications for Iraq’s Shiite militia…

لقد أدّى قرار الولايات المتحدة باغتيال اللواء قاسم سليماني في يناير، عن غير قصد، إلى مقتل أبو مهدي المهندس، القائد القوي والنافذ لكتائب حزب الله وقائد قوّات الحشد الشعبي بحكم الأمر الواقع. وفيما ركّز المعلّقون على سليماني، لموت المهندس تداعياتٌ واسعة على شبكة الميليشيات الشيعية في العراق.   ويأتي مقتل شخصية مهمة تربّعت على رأس شبكة…

Iraq has a new prime minister-designate, almost three weeks after the previous nominee — Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi — failed to secure parliamentary approval for his cabinet. The new figure, Adnan al-Zurfi, is a veteran of the Iraqi opposition and a long-time member of the ruling class who worked closely with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)…

Do the United States and Iraq, joined at the hip in tragic and mistake-prone war for most of the past 17 years, have a future together? As Iraq seeks to form a new government, its parliament is on record recommending that U.S. forces be expelled in the aftermath of the early January killing of Iranian terror…

بات للعراق رئيسُ وزراء مكلّف، بعد ثلاثة أسابيع تقريباً من فشل المرشّح السابق محمد توفيق علاوي في تأمين الثقة البرلمانية لحكومته. والشخص الجديد المُكلّف، ويُدعى عدنان الزرفي، شخصيةٌ مخضرمة في المعارضة العراقية وعضوٌ قديم في الطبقة الحاكمة عمِلَ عن كثب مع سلطة الائتلاف المؤقّتة في خلال الاحتلال الأمريكي للعراق. والزرفي شخصية حازمة، وله تاريخ متقلّب…

هل للولايات المتّحدة والعراق، المترافقان أبداً في حرب مؤسفة تشوبها الأخطاء طوال معظم السنوات السبع عشرة الماضية، مستقبلٌ معاً؟ فمع محاولة العراق تأسيس حكومة جديدة، ينصح البرلمان العراقي رسمياً بطرد القوّات الأمريكية عقب قتل العقل المدبّر الإرهابي الإيراني قاسم سليماني في أوائل يناير. ويمكن أن تتأجّج هذه التوتّرات من جديد بفعل ردّ الولايات المتحدة وحلفائها،…

The Brookings Doha Center (BDC) hosted a webinar discussion on April 22, 2020 about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on peace and security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Panelists assessed the short-term and long-term implications for the region at large whilst also narrowing in on Iraq and Syria. The panel consisted…

نظّم مركز بروكنجز الدوحة ندوة عبر الإنترنت في 22 أبريل 2020 حول تداعيات فيروس كورونا المستجدّ على الأمن والسلام في الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا. وقيّم المشاركون التداعيات القصيرة الأمد والطويلة الأمد للجائحة على المنطقة ككُلّ، مع التركيز على العراق وسوريا. وضمّت الجلسة التي أدارها رانج علاء الدين، زميل زائر في مركز بروكنجز الدوحة، مجموعة من…

Although jihadist groups have gripped the world’s attention for more than 20 years, today they are no longer in the spotlight. However, ISIS, al-Qaida, and al-Shabab remain active, and new groups have emerged. The movement as a whole is evolving, as is the threat it poses. On May 29, the Center for Middle East Policy…

As 2019 winds down, all eyes will soon turn to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The cycle promises to dominate the news throughout next year, covering everything from the ongoing impeachment proceedings to health-care reform and more. While education traditionally may not be considered a top-tier issue in national elections, as Brookings’s Doug Harris has…

Playful Learning Landscapes lies at the intersection of developmental science and transformative placemaking to help urban leaders and practitioners advance and scale evidence-based approaches to create vibrant public spaces that promote learning and generate a sense of community ownership and pride. On Wednesday, February 26, the Center for Universal Education and the Bass Center for…

“Shhhhhh.” This is perhaps the sound most associated with libraries. Yet, libraries are also portals to the world outside that take us to faraway places and spur new ideas. Libraries offer community gathering spaces where neighbors without internet access can complete job applications and families can gather for story time. But as times have changed,…

High-quality early learning experiences—those filled with stimulating and supportive interactions between children and caregivers—can have long-lasting impacts for children, families, and society. Unfortunately, many families, particularly low-income families, struggle to find any affordable early childhood education (ECE) program, much less programs that offer engaging learning opportunities that are likely to foster long-term benefits. This post…

“Holistic development” is the watchword when setting educational goals for students. However, what this means in practice differs from country to country and culture to culture. The underlying sentiments, though, are similar: We all want to ensure that our young citizens are equipped to think critically and creatively, and to solve problems in an increasing…

For many of us, COVID-19 has completely changed how we work. Remote work might have its advantages for some, but when the kids are out of school and libraries and museums are closed, juggling two roles at once can be a challenge. What is a parent to do? As two developmental psychologists dedicated to understanding…

I am a “glass is half full” kind of person. While uncertainty and fear from the coronavirus epidemic is of course top of mind, I have also seen many acts of human kindness on social media and on trips to the supermarket, library, or just walking my dog that give me hope. One of the…

As Wall Street takes a pounding from the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock we place in teachers is on the rise. If you didn’t appreciate the expertise, labor, and dedication that teachers patiently pour into our children most days of the week, then you probably do now. To help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, districts…

Under normal circumstances, children spend 80 percent of their waking time outside the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic has quite abruptly turned that 80 percent into 100 percent. Across the U.S., schools and child care centers have been mandated to close, and children of all ages are now home full time. This leaves many families, especially…

On March 16, television producer and author Shonda Rhimes tweeted “Been homeschooling a 6-year old and 8-year old for one hour and 11 minutes. Teachers deserve to make a billion dollars a year. Or a week.” Six hundred thousand likes and 100,000 retweets later, it is safe to say her message resonated with the public.…

The steep decline of manufacturing jobs, stagnant wages, and rising anger among working class voters about their economic future has sparked a growing skepticism about globalization, launching the country into a weeks-long back and forth about the merits of trade for the U.S. economy.

Over the past two decades, the Santiago Metropolitan Region has emerged on the global stage. Accounting for nearly half of the nation’s GDP, Santiago contains a significant set of economic assets—an increasingly well-educated workforce, major universities, and a stable of large global companies and budding start-ups. These strengths position it well to lead Chile’s path toward a more productive, technology-intensive economy that competes in global markets based on knowledge rather than raw materials.

For the past five years as part of their economic development strategies, 28 U.S. metro areas have been developing global trade and investment plans. These metro areas have devoted substantial energy and resources to this process, motivated by the conviction that global engagement will have a significant impact on their economies. But things often change once plans are released: The conviction that fuels the planning process doesn’t necessarily translate into the resources required to put these plans into action.

When asked how to create a great city, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said: “Create a great university and wait 200 years.”  It would be an understatement, then, to say that the fall 2015 launch of the University of Paris-Saclay—which merges 18 French academic and research institutions in one sprawling 30-square-mile research campus—heeds Moynihan’s words. As part of a Global Cities Initiative research effort to benchmark the Paris region’s global competitiveness, we visited the Paris-Saclay cluster to better understand this transformative investment.

Scanning the departures and arrivals board on the way home from launching metro Atlanta’s new foreign direct investment strategy under the Global Cities Initiative, it was easy to understand why local leaders remain focused on finding strategies to better leverage their airport as a unique infrastructure asset for global economic opportunities.

A dilemma surrounds global trade and investment efforts in metro areas. Economic development leaders are increasingly convinced that global engagement matters, but they are equally (and justifiably) convinced that they should use data to better determine which programs generate the highest return on investment. Therein lies the problem: there is a lack of data suitable for measuring export and foreign direct investment (FDI) activity in metro areas. Economic theory and company input validate the tactics that metros are implementing – such as developing export capacity of mid-sized firms, or strategically responding to foreign mergers and acquisitions – but they barely impact the data typically used to evaluate economic development success.

Fighting inequality is not only a global and national concern; it is also very local,” remarked Ángel Gurría, secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), last month at the Washington launch of the OECD’s Inclusive Growth in Cities Campaign.

I recently moderated a panel on metropolitan competitiveness and inclusion in the global economy, and was struck by these panelists’ resolve to promote the twin aims of competitiveness and inclusion through public-private collaborations.San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor was also slated to join, but due to severe weather, she was unable to leave her home state. Afterwards, I had the chance to ask Mayor Taylor about her vision for an inclusive, internationally-competitive San Antonio. Below is an edited version of our conversation.

Why have some cities become great global centers, and which cities will be future leaders? What explains the rise and fall of global cities? From Athens and Rome in ancient times to New York and Singapore today, a handful of cities have stood out as centers of economic, military, cultural or political power beyond their […]

As we have previously discussed, the decision to prioritize a single primary cluster in a regional economic development plan is challenging. For Milwaukee, this was especially difficult in development of its global trade and investment plan because it has three legitimate clusters:  energy, power and controls; food and beverage; and water technologies. The team developing the plan was reluctant to pick a favorite.

On May 2, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted a discussion with former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. In his remarks, Brzezinski offered perspectives from his new book, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power (Basic Books, 2012), on how the United States and Europe can…

On May 4, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted former European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana for the seventh annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. In his address, Solana offered perspectives on security, stability and democracy in a changing world, and discuss how these changes…

On March 17, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted Assistant Secretary of State and former Brookings Senior Fellow Philip Gordon for the sixth annual Sakip Sabanci Lecture. In his lecture, Assistant Secretary Gordon offered the Obama administration’s perspective on Turkey, its relations with the United States and the European…

On May 5, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted Lord Christopher Patten for the fifth annual Sakip Sabanci Lecture. In his address, Lord Patten drew on his decades of experience in elected government and international diplomacy to discuss how Turkey, Europe and the United States can realize opportunities for…

On May 8, the Center for the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted R. Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of state for political affairs, for the fourth annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. Ambassador Burns focused his address on the future of U.S.-Turkish relations. In March, Ambassador Burns retired as the under secretary of state…

Richard C. Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and vice chairman of Perseus LLC, delivered the third annual Sakip Sabanci Lecture. He was the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, ending the war in Bosnia; assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian Affairs (1994-96); U.S. ambassador to Germany (1993-94); assistant…

Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, delivered the second annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. Prior to assuming leadership of the world's largest source of aid to developing nations, Mr. Wolfowitz spent more than three decades as an ambassador, educator, and senior government official under seven U.S. presidents.To establish a prominent forum for exploring Turkey's increasingly…

At a time of great change in the Middle East and Europe, the Turkey Program of the Brookings Center on the United States and Europe announced the launch of an annual lecture series in honor of Sakip Sabanci. Mr. Sabanci was not only the most prominent Turkish business leader of his generation but a visionary…

On May 2, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted Kaushik Basu for the ninth annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. In his address, Basu discussed the persisting global economic crisis and the policy challenges facing emerging countries. Kaushik Basu is senior vice president (Development Economics) and chief economist of the…

On May 1, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings hosted the 10th annual Sakıp Sabancı lecture featuring former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In her remarks, Secretary Albright offered perspectives on Turkey’s political and economic development during a period of rapid global transformation. She also explored how Turkey’s evolution is shaping its partnership with…

Since the first novel coronavirus case in the United States was registered on January 19, 2020, we have learned one thing about the discipline of public health: It has been masquerading as medicine but it is at best a social science, and not an especially sophisticated one. Public health experts in the U.S. and the…

Every day since the COVID-19 pandemic began surging, The New York Times and other sources have reported the size and geographic scope of coronavirus cases. But in addition to these raw numbers, it is useful to know the key demographic attributes of places with the most cases, in comparison to those with lower (but likely…

There are two small business crises in the United States. The first—the sudden shock to small businesses induced by COVID-19—is acute and immediate. Our recent analysis indicates that over 50% of small businesses with employees (an astounding 4 million establishments) face immediate or near-term risks due to the pandemic. The second crisis—the structural racial and…

Will the coronavirus change everything? While that sentiment feels true to the enormity of the crisis, it likely isn’t quite right, as scholars from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program have been exploring since the pandemic began. Instead, the COVID-19 crisis seems poised to accelerate or intensify many economic and metropolitan trends that were already underway, with huge…

There is a stereotypical view of the places in America that COVID-19 has affected most: they are broadly urban, comprised predominantly of racial minorities, and strongly vote Democratic. This underlines the public’s perception of what kinds of populations reside in areas highly exposed to the coronavirus, as well as some of the recent political arguments…

The COVID-19 pandemic has already shown a dispersion away from the nation’s most urban and densely populated counties to suburban, somewhat whiter, and less politically Democratic parts of the country.  Yet the group of counties that newly qualify as areas with a high prevalence of COVID-19 cases are even more dispersed, and represent places where…

Several economic studies, including many of our own (here and here), have found evidence of a significant downturn in human well-being during the midlife years—the so-called “happiness curve.” Yet several other studies, particularly by psychologists, suggest that there either is no midlife dip and/or that it is insignificant or “trivial.” We disagree. Given that this…

The release of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook provides an initial country-by-country assessment of what might happen to the world economy in 2020 and 2021. Using the methods described in the World Poverty Clock, we ask what will happen to the number of poor people in the world—those living in households with less than $1.90…

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, America has begun to open up for some business and limited social interaction, especially in parts of the country that did not bear the initial brunt of the coronavirus.  However, the number of counties where COVID-19 cases have reached “high-prevalence” status continues to expand. Our tracking of these…