We summarize Francis Fukuyama’s State Building: Governance and World Order in the Twenty-first Century (London, Profile Books, 2005)and explore the limits of its arguments. State Building is a book with a very wide scope that essentially tries to “ground” and expand the fields of political...

Democratic nations are advised to have parliaments select the chief executive by the Borda Fixed Point method. The current practice of having direct popular elections using systems that have originated in history is inoptimal and actually quite undemocratic since winners are selected who don’t...

During the 2000s agricultural commodity derivatives markets were flooded by a “wall of money” coming from financial investors. In this essay I outline the main facts about the increasing presence and impact of financial investors in agricultural commodity markets and I discuss the main...

The recent crises concerning food and finances highlight the extreme fragility of the MENA countries and question the sustainability of the development processes. The economic and social impacts of these crises on the economies of the MENA region signal the magnitude of the challenges facing the...

Atmospheric concentration of the Green House Gases, Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Nitrous Oxide has increased largely since Industrial Revolution. Continued GHG emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes in global climate system. Climate changes will...

The methodology of the anthropometric indices of chronic poverty at early stages of human development is reviewed by including the possibility of using wealth or consumption as an alternative to income for the representation of an integral dimension of socioeconomic status as well as remarking...

Rice is the most eaten cereal in the world and the base of life for a huge part of poor population. But in spring 2008 the price raised that much that many people could not even afford the most needed quantities - a situation which shocked people all over the world. So, what are the reasons for...