debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
In 2001, Goldman Sachs’ Jim O’Neill famously coined the term BRIC to characterize the world’s four largest developing economies – Brazil, Russia, India, and China. But, more than a decade later, just about the only thing that these countries have in common is that they are the only economies ranked among the world’s 15 largest (adjusted for [...]
On November 6, either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will emerge victorious after an exhausting electoral race, setting the wheels in motion for the coming four years. An ocean away, on November 8, more than 2,000 members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will gather in Beijing. Approximately a week later, the members of the [...]
Most East European states are a long way from democratic; but the stability of their regimes depends on respecting certain rules of the game, such as dividing the spoils. It is normally the President who acts as ‘Lord of The Rings’ to keep the various circles of interest in balance – though there are several [...]
I am working on a paper about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Europe (hopefully there will be a post after Easter), so I suppose that colours the way I see this interesting chart posted by The Economist. I really think the EU should take emissions-reduction seriously (indeed that is the point of my piece). We [...]
Nonviolent revolutions do not always remain nonviolent, as the examples of uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria in the Arab Spring have shown. But peaceful movements for regime change often do succeed. They have toppled illegitimate rulers, as with the post-Soviet “color revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine, and ended apartheid in South Africa, for example, [...]
Alexey Navalny may well be the first Russian internet politician. The charismatic 35 year old emerged not just as an online activist, but leading agitator of the nascent protest movement. His slogan – “Down with the Party of Crooks and Thieves” – has become the chant of the movement and his idea to “vote for anyone else [...]
Since World War II, it is plain to see that a high degree of convergence has occurred all over the world around the institutions and practices of political democracy and economy. Country after country has followed the American lead, which offered to the world a development model based on the rise of the middle class. [...]
Since the crisis, global investors have been searching for a new safe haven. In the core industrial OECD economies both the public and private sectors face dangerous structural challenges. Fiscal deficits present governments with the unpalatable choice between the risk of loss of investor confidence and retrenchments which may provoke renewed recession. Manufacturing is losing [...]
2010 has been an annus horribilis for the President of the United States. At the midterm elections in November, his Democratic Party suffered a devastating blow, and lost the majority in the House of Representatives to a newly energised Republican Party. And with unemployment still close to ten percent, he soon saw his approval ratings [...]
When Russian President Dmitri Medvedev delivered his annual address to the Federal Assembly I was struck by the fact that his speech seemed to be meant for an advanced, prosperous country, not the real Russia of today. Russia will hold a presidential election in 2012. What happens in 2011 will, in my opinion, be even [...]
Politicians love bombastic rhetoric and one of their annoying habits is to call summits historical, especially when they themselves attended them. Fortunately, this judgment is going to be made by future historians and not by a communiqué. Be this as it may, the last NATO summit in Lisbon was a remarkable gathering with remarkable results. [...]
A group of former statesmen has recently issued another urgent plea for global nuclear disarmament. And although most former Cold War hawks are also now united in backing the Global Zero cause, the American debate seems strangely unmoved by such displays of bipartisanship among elder statesmen. Since the 7th of April, when the Russian and [...]
All Content