Obama's Foreign Policy Guru, the Aspiring Novelist
D Samuels, NYT M.
How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age.
D Samuels, NYT M.
How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age.
Marc Champion, Bloomberg View
In the beginning, nearly 14 years ago, Recep Tayyip Erdogan chose a team of smart and qualified people to run Turkey with him. He now appears set to force out one of the last of that group -- Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu -- and replace him with someone more pliant. This is disastrous for Turkey, as financial markets have recognized.
Matthias Verbergt, Wall Street Journal
Belgian project will transport 1,500 gallons an hour; requests for home taps go nowhere.
M. Cantelmi, Worldcrunch
Venezuela's economic woes are depriving the socialist regime of its remaining popularity, even as the government uses every constitutional and political trick up its sleeve to block the opposition's ascent to power.
Sean McMeekin, World Today
To judge from press coverage, the emergence of Islamic State has brought about a cartographic revolution in the Middle East. With the borders of Syria and Iraq in flux, journalists have resurrected the legend of Sykes-Picot, wherein Britain and France are said to have divided up the Ottoman empire between them in an agreement signed 100 years ago, in May 1916. Russia’s intervention in Syria, by upstaging the United States and her allies, seems in this view to be completing... Читать дальше...
Ian Buruma, Project Syndicate
NEW YORK – The former London mayor and left-wing Labour politician Ken Livingstone has been suspended from his party for claiming that Hitler was a Zionist in the early 1930s. According to Livingstone, “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews,” Hitler had merely wanted to expel them from their own countries to Palestine. And that, supposedly, made him a Zionist.
Armin Thurnher, Der Spiegel
The Austrian malady seems as extant as ever. There are problems, but they are wrapped in the bubble wrap of consensus. Foreign powers are warning of authoritarian, pre-fascist developments? That will only benefit Hofer: We Austrians elect who we want. Parties recommending against voting for Hofer? That would only motivate his opponents.
Jan Techau, Carnegie Europe
He told me that he is really only interested in three things. First, will the euro survive? Second, what will China do? Third, whats the state of the U.S. economy? Everything else is of interest only in relation to these three items. So if you want to engage this strategist on, say, Russia, or Brazil, or the human rights situation in Turkey, he would only be interested if you could convince him that any of these issues has an impact on one (or more) of the other big three. Читать дальше...
Iain Martin, CapX
For quite a few English Brexiteers this outcome would count as a “two for one” special bonus, in which they get rid of the EU and Scotland with one vote. Being a Scot and a Unionist I’m not in that camp, much as it is tempting to contemplate a future in which Alex Salmond is never on the television or radio south of the border ever again. But I’ve noticed in EU debates that the concept that Brexit equals Scottish independence or makes it more likely is a theory being aired in England.
Khaled Hroub, WP Review
As the primary political power in Gaza, Hamas finds itself at an impasse. Domestically, the dire living conditions caused by the blockade have prompted mounting pressure on the group. The situation in Gaza is rapidly approaching total economic and social collapse, especially since September 2015, when the Egyptian army destroyed many of the underground tunnels that run from Gaza into Sinai and serve as the economic lifeline of Gaza and its people. To make matters worse... Читать дальше...
Nico Hines, Daily Beast
As London’s mayoral race heats up, David Cameron’s party faces accusations of using a Muslim candidate’s heritage against him to stoke fears of terrorism.
Carlo Bastasin, Brookings
Those who claim that a new era is about to dawn have never understood the era in which they live. It is past time to consider these developments for what they are—a permanent change in the European political landscape. Last Sunday, Austrian presidential elections once again demonstrated that the traditional parties, elbowed aside by a xenophobic nationalist formation such as the Austrian Free Party, attract a negligible share of voters.
Gordon Chang, WAJ
In effect, it’s a zero-sum contest where both sides see a critical—and non-negotiable—issue at stake. But what makes the South China Sea even more dangerous is that the sides are ill-defined at the moment. Like in the days that preceded World War I, the situation is difficult for participants to anticipate, much less manage, because it is unclear what other powers will do in the event hostilities break out.
George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures
Tokyo cannot depend on Washington indefinitely.
Matt Ford, The Atlantic
Britain is holding local elections this week on what some have dubbed “Super Thursday,” but only one contest is worthy of the moniker: the race to succeed Boris Johnson as London’s mayor.
Robert Merry, Nat'l Interest
This election's real political fault line.
Pervez Hoodbhoy & Zia Mian, The Bulletin
The armies of Pakistan and India are practicing for nuclear war on the battlefield: Pakistan is rehearsing the use of nuclear weapons, while India trains to fight on despite such use and subsequently escalate. What were once mere ideas and scenarios dreamed up by hawkish military planners and nuclear strategists have become starkly visible capabilities and commitments. When the time comes, policy makers and people on both sides will expect—and perhaps demand—that the Bomb be used.
Charles Lister, FP
After years on the back foot, the Nusra Front is laying the groundwork for al Qaedas first sovereign state.
Lukasz Kamienski, Aeon
ISIS has revelled in its brutality. Reports of ISIS fighters, jihadist terrorists and insurgents fuelled by drugs on their murderous rampages have generated outrage and astonishment. The vision of intoxicated jihadists adds an almost inconceivable level of fright, but it should not. There is nothing exceptional in ISIS fighters popping pills. Drugs and warfare have always gone hand in hand from Homeric warriors to Wehrmacht troops, and more recently US pilots during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Читать дальше...
Nick Turse, WIB
This is a story that ought to be told and told and retold. And yet here in Leer, like everywhere I went in South Sudan, I couldn’t get away from Donald Trump. So many—South Sudanese, Americans, Canadians, Europeans—seemed to want to talk about him. Even in this ruined shell of a town, Trump was big news.
Irina Slav, Oil Price
Without very strong political support from Europe, U.S. gas producers will be at a disadvantage in a market packed tightly with competitors. Since consistently low gas prices have left them with less cash for price maneuvering, conquering the European gas market might prove to be a bigger challenge than expected.
Leonid Bershidsky, Bloom. View
According to data collected by the Israeli demographer Sergio DellaPergola, France, the U.K. and Germany are the European countries with the biggest core Jewish population, defined as people who describe themselves as Jews. In France, the number of major violent anti-Semitic attacks dropped to 72 last year from 164 in 2014. The U.K. saw a similarly steep decrease, to 62 from 141. In Germany, there were 37 attacks, down from 76. Throughout Europe, anti-Jewish violence is at the lowest level in a decade.