International Relations
The Risks of Withdrawal
Entering a war is easy; getting out of it is the hard part. That axiom is particularly true for the United States today, as it muddles through three wars – two of which were forced upon it (Afghanistan and the “war on terror”), with the third (Iraq) started unnecessarily by a US administration blinded by [...]
If the “rule of law” could talk, we’d hear it shriek
Quote of the day (well, technically yesterday) „When people break the law with impunity, it encourages further disobedience and breeds further disrespect for the rule of law.” Oh my, I’d love a glimpse of that thermometer in hell, the temperatures must be dropping rapidly. Guess who wrote these lovely lines re illegal immigration? None other [...]
Obama’s Iftar-Speech Fuels Mosque Controversy
With the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico almost stopped, America all of a sudden finds itself enmeshed in a new ferocious debate about religion; one that is likely to further damage the president’s outreach agenda to the Muslim world. At a recent Iftar-dinner at the White House, Obama made the following remarks: ‘… [...]
Reforming Global Economic Governance: A Strategy for Middle Powers in the G20
The global crisis has helped promote the G20 from supporting role to one of the leading forums on the world stage. This column argues that the G20 presents a unique opportunity for its medium-sized members to influence the global economic agenda – but only if they base their short-term actions on a long-term vision. The [...]
The Myth of Authoritarian Growth
On a recent Saturday morning, several hundred pro-democracy activists congregated in a Moscow square to protest government restrictions on freedom of assembly. They held up signs reading “31”, in reference to Article 31 of the Russian constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly. They were promptly surrounded by policemen, who tried to break up the demonstration. [...]
New Transatlantic Relations with a “Pacific” President
By his own definition, Barak Obama is the US’ first „Pacific“ President. Indeed, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia there are few “Atlantic” ties to be found in his biography. Obama’s remarks, delivered during a visit to Asia, may be only intended as a polite gesture; nevertheless they indicate a shift of attention away from Europe [...]
Russia’s Great Gas Game
Russia and the European Union are geopolitical neighbors. Whether or not their relationship is in fact neighborly, rather than tense and confrontational, is of critical importance to both. Unless it modernizes its economy and society, Russia can forget its claim to status as a world power in the twenty-first century and will continue to fall [...]
Who “Lost” Turkey?
Turkey’s “no” last month (a vote cast together with Brazil) to the new sanctions against Iran approved in the United Nations Security Council dramatically reveals the full extent of the country’s estrangement from the West. Are we, as many commentators have argued, witnessing the consequences of the so-called “neo-Ottoman” foreign policy of Turkey’s Justice and [...]
McChrystal’s Replacement Marks the End of the ‘Big Macs’ in Afghanistan
In a spectacular move President Obama fired General Stanley McChrystal after the Rolling Stone magazine broke a story reporting his staff’s and his own disrespectful remarks about the president and his national security team. The incident is not only meat for the tireless hosts of cable news shows; it also represents another chapter in the [...]
Closing the ‘Democracy Deficit’ in the EU and US
My recent research trip to Switzerland with a group of other Americans was enlightening, in more ways than one. Besides admiring the great beauty of the Swiss mountains, lakes and picturesque cities, it was a chance to study in depth the Alpine jewel’s system of direct democracy (initiative and referendum, or I&R). With both the [...]
Africa’s Window of Opportunity
Just when Europe’s economic future has deteriorated Africa’s is looking more promising than for many decades. That promise is underpinned by global commodity prices, high despite the world recession, and by years of gradual reforms. The revenues from resource extraction are going to increase massively. This is because Africa is the last frontier for resource [...]
Reforming Global Economic Governance — Towards Bretton Woods III
World economic governance needs to move towards a Bretton Woods III involving effective supervision of all structural imbalances by the IMF, greater resources for the IMF along with fundamental reforms of that institution, and a shift from the dollar as dominant international reserve currency. This requires cooperation between the G3 – the US, China and [...]
