Andrew Bacevich, LA Times
By characterizing the events of Sept. 11 as a bolt out of the blue unrelated to past actions by the United States, the version of truth constructed in the wake of those events served both purposes. Rather than prompting a reassessment of prevailing U.S. policies the problematic U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia among them it upheld those policies, justifying their perpetuation and not incidentally affirming the wisdom of those who devised them in the first place.
Max Fisher, Vox
Clinton's past record is the area where she does indeed appear the most hawkish. She has, by far, the longest record of any candidate of supporting or participating in military interventions. But she also has by far the longest record of supporting or participating in diplomatic efforts meant to avoid or reduce conflict.
Nicholas Vinocur, Politico EU
Doctor, there’s a pulse! That’s what friends of France’s deeply unpopular president, Franois Hollande, must be thinking after he won a triple bonanza this week that makes his chances of winning re-election in May of next year a bit less laughable.
Kevin Williamson, National Review
If you consider the most meaningful measure of a country’s economic output — GDP per capita over time — you’ll see that the fat years under Chvez did not actually happen. In fact, if you chart that real (inflation-adjusted) GDP per capita by year, you’ll see that Venezuela is significantly poorer today than it was in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s. In fact, Venezuela’s per capita GDP reached its all-time low in 2003, under Chvez. This is no surprise: Making well-off... Читать дальше...
Linda Poon, Wired
Venezuela relies heavily on hydroelectric power from the Guri Dam it built in the 1970s and 1980s. Yet the US Energy Information Administration reports that hydroelectric power met less than 25 percent of the Venezuela’s energy demands in 2014. Thanks to historic drought brought on by El Nio, a country that once had one of the largest water reservoirs in the world now holds patches of desert. Earlier this month, water levels hit a historic low of just 797 feet, according to Reuters.
Matt Phillips, QZ
Brought to power as part of a landslide Liberal wave in Canada’s Parliament, Prime Minister Trudeau’s government has outlined an ambitious spending push aimed at keeping Canada clear of the economic pain now being felt by other large commodities exporters.
Adnan Abu Amer, Al-Monitor
Israel and Hamas have been escalating their war of words, which observers on both sides fear could turn into violence.
Joel Wit, Foreign Policy
The United States made a good deal with Pyongyang in 1994. But why has Obama forsaken the path of negotiation with the Hermit Kingdom?
James Lawton, Guardian
Applebaum, Spectator
You don’t like Barack Obama’s foreign policy? Fine, I don’t either. You are impatient to know who the next president will be? Me too. But if you think that the current American president’s trip to the UK this week is some kind of fanciful fling, or that his arguments against Brexit represent the last gasp of his final term in office, then you are deeply mistaken. In Washington, the opposition to a British withdrawal from the European Union is deep, broad and bipartisan, shared... Читать дальше...
Beppe Severgnini, New York Times
Over the past hundred years, many of Italys pivotal changes good and bad began in Milan: socialism, Great War fever, Fascism, the resistance to Fascism, the economic boom of the 60s, the political turmoil of the 70s, the Clean Hands anti-corruption campaign, the populist Northern League. And now, this young, lively and colorful renaissance. Milans challenge is to spread its current success to the rest of the country. Show that theres an entrepreneurial spirit across Italy... Читать дальше...
Benny Avni, NY Post
The Bashar al-Assad regime is outraged. So angry, in fact, that on Tuesday it asked the UN Security Council to do something. And the council, including America, finally agreed on something regarding Syria: It must get back the Golan Heights from Israel.
Samuel Bendett, RCWorld
Following years of rumors, and its initial showing during a military parade in Moscow last year, Russia's newest battle tank, the Armata, continues to make headlines.
Wall Street Journal
Editorial Page Writer Sohrab Ahmari on the refugee crisis and the rise of populism on the continent.
Stratfor
In some ways, the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq has masked the country's deep fragmentation. During their campaign against the jihadist group, Iraq's many ethnic and religious groups have often cooperated with one another. United by a desire to reclaim territory from the jihadist group, the Kurdish peshmerga, Shiite militias and Sunni tribal militias, along with the Iraqi government forces, have launched numerous joint operations. But competing goals among the groups, all of which desire more economic resources... Читать дальше...
D. Arbilla, Worldcrunch
I'd say Bolivian President Evo Morales has a bit of the same instincts. Time to up the ante, he must have thought as he recently came out in defense of his chums, former Argentine President Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, Dilma and Lula. He cannot believe Cristina K has been summoned to court. It must be another of those parliamentary or judicial "coups" that the Left sees everywhere. Of course, if the courts were investigating right-wing opponents, then it would be justice taking its course... Читать дальше...
Anatole Kaletsky, Project Syndicate
That leaves Italy, a country that, having dominated Europe’s politics and culture for most of its history, is now treated as “peripheral.” But Italy is resuming its historic role as a source of Europe’s best ideas and leadership in politics, and also, most surprisingly, in economics.
Marina Koren, The Atlantic
Three decades after the explosion, the construction of a billion structure to cover the nuclear power plant's destroyed reactor nears completion.
Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg View
The presidents of Ukraine and Belarus, the two countries most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, used the meltdown's 30-year anniversary on Tuesday to make political statements. It looks like neither of them -- nor Russian President Vladimir Putin -- has drawn the right conclusions from the tragedy, which probably hastened the Soviet Union's demise.
Eli Lake, Bloomberg View
Many Western journalists, diplomats and others seem desperate to believe that Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, is a moderate in a sea of hardliners, a rare Iranian with whom the West can and has done business.
Srdjan Cvijic, EU Observer
Many analysts compared this election to a de facto referendum on EU membership. In a recent interview with Vucic , Politico described Serbia’s vote as a battle between extremist nationalist and pro-European forces. Former Macedonia PM Nikola Gruevski (Photo: epp.eu) Indeed, this is how the Serbian PM would present these elections to the outside world: it is not just a victory for Vucic, it is a victory for Europe. At best this is wishful thinking, at worst wilful denial.
Fred Kaplan, Slate
The strategy worked to great effect against Iraq insurgents.
Maajid Nawaz, Daily Beast
Jihadist terrorists are systematically hunting down leading free thinkers in Bangladesh—one by one—and hacking them to death.
Molly O'Toole, For. Policy
Even as they admit to fighting a losing electoral battle, Sanders’s top security advisors aim to pull the Democratic Party back to the left of Clinton’s hawkishness.