Unbeknown to most Americans, the Afghanistan war is the longest American war in its history. More importantly, this war defies the elements of a just war as elucidated by St Augustine of Hippo 2000 years ago: First, it was not based on clear, legitimate or just aims. The...

After nearly 12 years, the longest and most conflicted U.S. -Afghanistan war may be winding down. Thanks to President Barack Obama's decision to speed up the withdrawal of U.S. troops in the spring of this year instead of in the summer saving American and Afghan lives and wealth. This 180...

The southern African nation of Botswana has defied the global economic downturn of the 2007-2009 great recession. Instead, it exemplifies the recent transition of economic growth in favor of low-income countries as it jumped from recording one of the world's lowest per capita income figures of $70 to...

By Nake M. Kamrany and Samuel Kosydar

The twin deficit this time is high unemployment and high deficit/debt. As the current fiscal cliff fiasco unfolds it is pertinent for the United States to reexamine its economic priorities. Despite the high unemployment that continues to beleaguer the U.S. economy, Congress's concerns...

The current economic policy priority should be to reduce the rate of unemployment down to 4 percent and subsequently seeking policies to reduce deficit and debt after the economy is robust. The current dilemma of fiscal cliff offering two possibilities neither of which are practically acceptable nor offering desirable alternatives....

A cardinal rule of problem-solving is to accurately define the problem before a solution is applied. Ostensibly, the Obamacare and Romney proposals both miss the point, as they will be cost-prohibitive if implemented. Given the growth rates of annual cost, the total health care bill will exceed the GDP. As...

Now that U.S. Healthcare is constitutional, the success of its implementation largely depends upon breaking up the medical cartel(s), and separating it from the political process, in order to make it cost affordable. The most recent figures report that the U.S. per capita healthcare cost is $8,233, which...

U.S. health care is fraught with emotional prediction of ideologues including the Supreme Court. The combination of U.S. private and public health care cost, if unchecked, will exceed the budget of the federal government by the year 2027, leaving out 50+ million Americans who have no coverage, the poor and...

Bangladesh is poised to follow China and India's recent growth pattern of rising per capita income as the recent distribution of economic growth has shifted in favor of low and middle income countries. Bangladesh's estimate of economic growth is predicated upon its impressive growth performance of per capita income averaging...

United States incarceration rate defies the rule of optimal sanction that would promote equity and efficiency. It incarcerates 753 per 100,000; comparable European figures include 153 for England, 96 for France, 92 for Italy, 66 for Denmark and 90 for Germany. The high figures in the...

Egregious gender inequality still exists globally despite of substantial national and international measures that have been taken towards gender equality. Only four out of over 135 nations have achieved gender equality including Costa Rica, Cuba, Sweden, and Norway. Yemen was scored the lowest across all dimensions. Measures of gender equality...

The U.S. war in Afghanistan is one of three U.S. wars against low-income countries (Vietnam war and Iraq war) which posed no security threat to the U.S. All parties sustained enormous damages in blood and wealth. In retrospect, the projection of U.S power and influence was superfluous and had no...

Brazil has joined China and India among middle income countries to forge ahead towards closing the income gap between the North-South disparities and take advantage of the shift in the distribution of economic growth in favor of middle income countries. With annual per capita income growth rate three times faster...

Does the great recession of 2007- 2008 signal the beginning of the decline of Western powers and its domination of the global economy which began 500 years ago?

Probably not, because the factors that contributed to the dominance of the West beginning in the 16th century are still valid;...

Last week President Hamid Karzai called on the Grand Assembly or Loya Jirga of Afghanistan seeking consultation, advice and recommendation concerning strategic agreement with the United States. The Grand Assembly readily recommended that the government may sign the strategic agreement with the United States. It signifies that the people of...

China's 12th five-year plan (2012-2017) has a targeted annual GDP growth rate of 7% and the development of renewable energy with an investment of $640 billion to constitute 15% of China's energy needs by the year 2020, building housing for 36 million families and the promotion of social equity and...

President Obama's recent announcement of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq was welcomed news. The Iraq war is the second longest American war in history after Afghanistan. The U.S. has been at this war for 102 months thus far; longer than the war time span of Vietnam, Korean, World War II,...

Since the introduction of the Euro in 1999, the twin pillars, Germany and France, the largest and healthiest economies with current shares of 27.1% and 21.2% of total gross domestic product respectively, have been successfully leading the Eurozone. Now, it looks as if Germany might have to be the sole...

The devastating and tragic event of 9/11 landed American forces in Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden and destroy al Qaeda who had taken shelter there. The intrigue has lasted more than a decade and continuing, although Osama bin Laden and his cronies slipped into Pakistan in October of 2001...

The recent news that no jobs were added to the U.S. economy in August indicates the depth of the current recession. Meanwhile, the U.S. stock market and economy have been sustaining major gyrations and uncertainty due to an uninformed and misguided battle over the budget deficit and national debt among...