Labor

The Real Mohamed Bouazizi

One year on, a team of researchers uncovers the man behind the martyr and the economic roots of the Arab Spring.

BY HERNANDO DE SOTO | DECEMBER 16, 2011

Retooling the U.S. Economy for Growth

If the United States wants to stay competitive in coming years, boosting productivity is the key, finds a new report by McKinsey Global Institute. FP previews the findings exclusively here.

BY BYRON AUGUSTE, JAMES MANYIKA, SCOTT NYQUIST | FEBRUARY 15, 2011

The Arab World's Youth Army

Meet the chronically unemployed twenty-somethings fueling social and political upheaval across the Middle East.

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER | JANUARY 27, 2011

Child Workers of Bolivia, Unite!

Nearly 1 million children work full time in Bolivia's tin mines, in cemeteries, on buses, or in the markets. It's a tough life, but at least they're unionized.

BY HELEN COSTER | NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Robert Kaplan's New Global Geography

In Monsoon, our latter-day Kipling makes the case that America can't rule the whole world alone.

BY BLAKE HOUNSHELL | OCTOBER 27, 2010

The Spectacle of the Society

France's half-century social-spending spree is coming to an end -- and Nicolas Sarkozy is stuck holding the bag.

BY JAMES TRAUB | OCTOBER 22, 2010

French History Strikes Back

As the current unrest in Paris and Marseille proves, the social contract that French workers forged generations ago is still alive -- but how long can it last?

BY ROBERT ZARETSKY | OCTOBER 21, 2010

West Bank on the Left Bank

Stoked by President Sarkozy's refusal to back down on pension reform, France's discontents are on the rise and taking to the streets.

OCTOBER 19, 2010

The Car Czar Speaks

Steven Rattner talks to FP about how he pulled Detroit back from the brink -- and what lessons that success could have for Obama going forward.

INTERVIEW BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | OCTOBER 14, 2010

Vive la Retraite!

Across France, demonstrators took to the streets to protest the government's plan to raise the retirement age.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

Labor Day in Hell

The world's most repressive workplace environments -- where trade unions are suppressed, workers' rights are ignored, and forced labor is not unknown.

CAPTIONS BY ARCH PUDDINGTON | SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

India's Hidden War

Inside the resource conflict you haven't heard about.

SEPT. / OCT. 2010

An African iPhone? There’s No App for That.

Why Steve Jobs should let Africans buy his new toy.

BY DAYO OLOPADE | JUNE 24, 2010

Sarkozy's Better Half

If the French president has a hope of getting things done at the G-20, it's because of his philosophic finance minister, Christine Lagarde.

BY ANNIE LOWREY | SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

India’s New Deal

On a recent morning in a village in eastern India, Hirya Devi, a rail-thin woman in a tangerine sari, told a crowd of a few hundred poor laborers how she came to participate in the largest employment program in human history.

BY DANIEL PEPPER | JANUARY 5, 2009

A World Enslaved

There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history. True abolition will elude us until we admit the massive scope of the problem, attack it in all its forms, and empower slaves to help free themselves.

BY E. BENJAMIN SKINNER | FEBRUARY 19, 2008

Think Again: Europe

It likes to pretend it is a kinder, gentler alternative to the United States. But stagnant economies, suffering immigrants, and elitist rhetoric don't make a global powerhouse. With nothing less than the future of the European project at stake, the countries of Europe must now either unite behind much-needed reforms, or watch their differences tear them apart.

BY CLIVE CROOK | JUNE 11, 2007

Europe's Class Act

BY PAMELA MEADOWS | NOVEMBER 1, 2003

Happily Ever NAFTA?

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has sparked fierce academic and political disputes -- not to mention an armed rebellion or two. Looking back on its nearly nine years of existence, has NAFTA delivered or disappointed? The answer will go a long way toward determining the future of regional trade pacts. U.S. critics clash with Mexico's original NAFTA architects on whether free trade in North America is a blessing or a curse.

BY SARAH ANDERSON, JOHN CAVANAGH | SEPTEMBER 1, 2002

One Boardroom Fits All?

BY MARCO BECHT, J. BRADFORD DELONG | JULY 1, 2002

Vox Americani

What do Americans want? The U.S. public's view of the world has long been a study in what seem like maddening contradictions, at times both altruistic and paranoid, protectionist and entrepreneurial, and isolationist and multilateralist. Like many other analysts, FP's editors have worn deep furrows into our brows trying to discern how Americans see the world and their place in it. So we invited Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland and author of several groundbreaking studies of U.S. public opinion, to "interview" the American people on the most pressing global issues of the day. He created a composite of average Americans -- a virtual John/Jane Q. Public -- derived from the majority positions in extensive polling data and using the kind of language he commonly hears in focus groups. (An annotated version of this interview can be found at www.foreignpolicy.com with footnotes citing poll questions and data.) As it turns out, Americans defy simple labels, largely because they refuse to submit to simplistic choices.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2001

Union Showdown?

BY CAROLINA QUINTEROS | JULY 1, 2001

Does the Public Care?

U.S. public-opinion data reveal mixed views regarding the importance to consumers of labor conditions around the world. Below, a sampling of American attitudes from 1999 and 2000.

JULY 1, 2001

Big Business is Watching

BY GARY GEREFFI, RONIE GARCIA-JOHNSON, ERIKA SASSER | JULY 1, 2001

Bon Temps for French Labor

BY STEPHEN THOMSEN | MAY 1, 2001

Prime Numbers: Labor Pains

FP's new feature looks into the global labor market.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2000