Welcome to our roundup of news and current events related to ethics and international affairs! Here’s some of what we’ve been reading this past month: US President, Joe Biden, meets with Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in 2021. Photo credit: The White House The Washington Post: Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia by security service For the first time since the Cold War, a U.S. journalist has been arrested in Russia on charges of espionage. A Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich, was taken from a restaurant in Ekaterinburg, Russia on March 29. Charges of espionage in ..read more

The wreckage of a collapsed building in Diyarbakır, Turkey. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons On February 6, two earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude, respectively, shook Turkey and Syria. By February 23, the death toll had reached a staggering 42,000 in Turkey and 5,800 in Syria. Over 6,444 buildings had collapsed in Turkey alone, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. Many people have been vocal in their criticism of the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), the military, and urban planning, for not being prepared for the earthquakes, which are not uncommon in the regio ..read more

President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Xi Jinping co-chairing Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Photo credit: GovernmentZA via Wikimedia Commons The COVID-19 economic shock has highlighted the unprecedented amount of influence that China has in Africa, particularly as to issues of debt and development. Over the last two decades, China went from having almost no investments in Africa at all to becoming the continent’s largest bilateral creditor, largely as a result of lending under its Belt and Road Initiative.1 According to the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University ..read more

USAID mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic in South Africa. Photo credit: USAID/South Africa via Wikimedia Commons. Most developing countries continue to wrestle with dramatic health and economic crises spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. Many countries were and still are ill-prepared to deal with the pandemic because of debt crises and unsustainable sovereign debt.1 As African countries struggle with debt, as of mid-2022, only 15 percent of the continent was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 according to the World Health Organization.2 This essay examines the impact of high sovereign debts o ..read more

Depositors in Buenos Aires, Argentina protest the freezing of their accounts, mostly in dollars. They were converted to pesos at less than half their new value. February 6, 2002. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons Much has been written about the questionable legitimacy of extending credit to states where it is likely that the funds will benefit corrupt leaders, or where the terms of the debt are highly inequitable. We would like to focus on a different moment in the debt cycle: the point of default, and the loss of voice suffered by the Global South parties as they negotiate solutions.1 Prearra ..read more

Pope Francis addresses the United Nations General Assembly on September 2015. Photo credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas via Flickr. Indebtedness has long played a role in the struggle of countries in the Global South to achieve economic and social development. In the 1980s, Latin America saw a period of negative economic growth, due in large part to the increasing burden of debt service following the free availability of credit in the prior decade. By the late 1980s, it was common to hear references to la deuda impagable—debt that was so high as to be unpayable. In 1991, the economist Xabier Goro ..read more

World Economic Forum annual meeting held in Davos on May 2022. Photo credit: World Economic Forum via Flickr. Photo credit: Flickr. The editors of Ethics & International Affairs are pleased to present an online exclusive roundtable on emerging issues in sovereign debt. This roundtable, organized by Joy Gordon and Dominic Chai, S.J., looks at three issues in the dilemma of sovereign debt: how the sovereign debt burden on the Global South has impacted the ability of developing countries to respond effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact of China’s growing role as the lea ..read more

Welcome to our roundup of news and current events related to ethics and international affairs! Here’s some of what we’ve been reading this past month: The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Photo Credit: Press Information Bureau on behalf of Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India via Wikimedia Commons NPR: As G-20 ministers gather in Delhi, Ukraine may dominate — despite India’s own agenda The yearly G-20 Summit is taking place in India, with Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, positioning it as his party’s own personal success. While it was India’s turn to host the Summit, Modi ..read more

A liquified natural gas tanker. Photo credit: Joachim Kohler Bremen via Wikimedia Commons. Two different conversations are being held in Europe and the United States, sparked by the same conflict. The Russo-Ukrainian War, heading into its second year, has caused immeasurable damage and suffering in Ukraine, and it has given rise to debates over a variety of hotly contested ethical issues. One such debate concerns Europe’s long-term reliance on and trust of Russia’s natural resources. Many people and organizations on both sides of the Atlantic are celebrating the possibility of finally ending ..read more

Welcome to our roundup of news and current events related to ethics and international affairs! Here’s some of what we’ve been reading this past month: Damage done by the earthquake in Diyarbakır, Turkey. Photo credit: Mahmut Bozarslan for Voice of America via Wikimedia Commons The Washington Post: Turkey’s earthquake death toll might be more than just a natural disaster On February 6, two massive earthquakes hit the southeast of Turkey and northern Syria. With a magnitude of 7.8, it was the largest earthquake to ever have struck Turkey. This earthquake is reminiscent of one that hit Istanbul ..read more