The latest issue of Foreign Affairs contains a number of articles related to the international economy:

Smooth Sailing:The World’s Shipping Lanes Are Safe. Those who worry about the vulnerability of the world’s oil shipping lanes should calm down. Oil tankers are more resilient than often presumed, and only the United States has the capability to seriously disrupt maritime traffic — which it will not do.

Ending the Trade War in Washington: Saving the Trade Agenda by Protecting Workers. Protectionist sentiment on Capitol Hill threatens to scuttle Washington’s free-trade agenda. A bipartisan consensus on trade could emerge, but only if the White House and the Democrats can reach a compromise on labor issues.

The End of National Currency. Global financial instability has sparked a surge in “monetary nationalism” — the idea that countries must make and control their own currencies. But globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.