International Relations
Why Obama snubbed the EU/US Summit
My mother was fond of telling me that ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. I was reminded of her words when I read about Obama’s ‘snub’ of the EU in declining to attend the EU/USA summit in May.
It is alleged that Obama declined because he could not face having to go down the wedding line [...]
What a Post-American World means for Europe
In recent months, Europe has learned some hard lessons about its transatlantic partner. President Barack Obama triggered great hope when he replaced George W. Bush at the American helm. But a year later, especially following Obama’s failure to produce anything of substance at Copenhagen, Europeans are realizing that Obama is going to have a difficult [...]
Does Europe need a Strategy for China?
The European Union is the second largest economy in the world, but does it have a global economic strategy? 10 years after the creation of the euro, there is little evidence for it. Policymakers are more concerned with protecting narrow domestic advantages than with improving opportunities for the European economy as a whole. The Lisbon [...]
The changing Face of Global Governance: between past Strategic Failure and Future Economic Constraints
Until recently, the West has, by and large, determined the rules of the game on the global stage. During the last century, western countries presided over a shift in world power – from control via territory to control via the creation of governance structures created in the post-1945 era. From the United Nations Charter and [...]
The new European Commission needs to use its Experience to stabilise fragile States
In the face of the political and military deterioration in Afghanistan international ambitions have been radically scaled back. The initial intent was to turn Afghanistan swiftly into a replica of a Western democracy. The new objective is to settle for any government that blocks terrorism. State-building has been abandoned both because it is evidently difficult, [...]
Who will run the World?
The tectonic plates of the global economy are beginning to settle into a new alignment. At Pittsburgh it was announced that henceforth the G20 would replace the G8. At Istanbul, where I have just been, Stanley Fischer, currently Governor of the Central Bank of Israel and hugely influential, used the Annual Meetings of the IMF [...]
Old and New Terrorism
Two years before the September 11 attacks against the United States in 2001, the pre-eminent historian of terrorism, Walter Laqueur, noted that a ‘revolution’ in the character of terrorism was taking place. Rather than the vicious yet calculated application of violence that everyone had become familiar with, the world was now confronted with terrorists whose [...]
The New Politics of Globalisation
The world is suffering from the most severe economic breakdown in decades and the international political community, under the umbrella of the G20 and the UN, is working feverishly to mitigate the hardest consequences of the downturn. But the political management of the crisis must not only focus on the tackling of economic issues and [...]
Why is there no Global Crisis Meeting?
Is it just me or are our political leaders really failing terribly to coordinate their responses to this catastrophic banking crisis? Every commentator emphasises the need for a coordinated action on a global scale, yet other than coordinated interest rate cuts – which are easy to synchronize – there is no structure identifiable.
On the contrary, [...]
Where now for Iraq?
Watch Dr Toby Dodge (International Institute for Strategic Studies and University of London) discuss the current situation and future of Iraq.
Middle East Crisis? Security in an Unstable World
Watch Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University talk about security issues in the Middle East. Rogers is the author of the influential book “Why we are losing the War on Terror“. The event took place at the Global Policy Institute at London Metropolitan University
Pakistan and the Global War on Terrorism
Watch Professor Anatol Lieven (Global Policy Institute London / Kings College) and Sir Hilary Synnott (IISS) talk about Pakistan and the Global War on Terrorism. The event took place in the City of London on 30th January 2008.