Jackson Diehl, Washington Post
Though he lacks the means to make it happen, the outgoing president could publicly lay out U.S. terms for a settlement, much as Bill Clinton did before leaving office. If he sought ratification by the U.N. Security Council, Obama could set them in diplomatic stone. A conflict that for half a century has been defined by U.N. Resolution 242 would henceforth be governed by Obama's.
Miguel Syjuco, New York Times
Marcos is notorious as one of history's great kleptocrats. After declaring martial law in 1972, during his final term, he suspended democracy until his ouster 14 years later. His regime is remembered for its summary executions, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, censorship, electoral fraud and epic corruption. The Marcos family is believed to have plundered as much as $10 billion, only a portion of which has been recovered.
Walter Russell Mead, American Int.
The damage that Zuma and the clique around him can do to South Africa can be irreversible if the institutions of South African democracy don't rise to the challenge. The last election campaign showed that the opposition parties, especially the Democratic Alliance, were growing into a much more serious force. The question is whether the opposition, now in power in a number of South Africa's big cities, can deliver progress and deepen its appeal to voters. Will... Читать дальше...
Hugo Dixon, The Guardian
From legal challenges to European concessions, we have several chances to reverse the outcome of June's flawed vote.
Hassan Hassan, The National
Extremist forces have tried to establish a foothold for themselves in the area, but they often faced tribal, factional and social resistance. Steps have to be taken to prevent extremist forces in their current campaign to buy loyalty where they failed to sell their extremist views.
Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal
The point of partition isn't to solve all of Syria's problems. It's to shrink them to more manageable dimensions. A future Alawite state along Syria's Mediterranean coast might ensure the political survival of the Assad dynasty. But it could be a secure ethnic homeland, free from the brutal entanglements of the rest of Syria, especially if it has security guarantees from Russia. A Kurdish zone, joined to Iraqi Kurdistan, would be viewed as a threat by the Turks. Читать дальше...
Micah Zenko, Foreign Policy
The politicians and pundits calling for one in Syria ought to remember how toothless and ineffective the U.S. air patrols were -- for 12 long years -- in Iraq.
William Cook, Spectator
Alternative für Deutschland speaks for the growing number of German voters who are increasingly worried about immigration, and find no outlet for their concerns in Germany's mainstream parties. Barely three years since it was founded, AfD already boasts representatives in nine of Germany's 16 provincial parliaments. Last March, in Sachsen-Anhalt (another East German province beset by similar social problems as Mecklenburg, but without the benefits of a burgeoning tourist industry) the party polled over 24 per cent.
Michael Kofman, Foreign Policy
Moscow isn't looking to escalate the war in the Donbass. But it is laying the groundwork to dominate its neighbor for years to come.
Economist
Stubborn Socialists are blocking Mariano Rajoy from forming a centre-right government
Michael Ruhle, Berlin Policy Journal
Donald Trump isn't the only one to question the worth of the transatlantic alliance, but the critics miss what it achieves for the United States.
Ted Galen Carpenter, War on the Rocks
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has managed to gain unprecedented attention for stating in his usual flamboyant fashion something that many respected foreign policy analysts have maintained for years: that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an obsolete security arrangement created in a vastly different era to meet an entirely different security situation.
Phil Reynolds, The Diplomat
If Kim Jong-un's regime collapses, how will China, the U.S., and South Korea react?
Nikolaus Blome, Fin. Times
The massive influx of refugees from Syria has slowed to a trickle yet the AfD is still going nowhere.
Yun Sun, Brookings Institution
While Japan's heightened contribution to African development is a highly positive sign of enhanced international efforts, Yun Sun argues that such positivity is shadowed by the broad coverage on Japan intensifying its competition with China in Africa.
P. Smith, Fiscal Times
Big trade deals across both oceans were supposed to be two marble monuments the Obama administration bequeaths to posterity. But as the president completes his second term, it's more likely that he'll leave behind a half-built and poorly carved stone memorial.
Xuan Loc Doan, Asia Times
The call by Vietnam and Singapore for a peaceful settlement of the disputes, âÂÂwithout resorting to the threat or use of forceâ can be equally seen as a rebuke to China's recent call for a âÂÂpeople's war at sea.âÂÂ
Dahlia Scheindlin, Jerusalem Post
The bottom line is that the road is twisted and belabored, full of fresh trauma and setbacks.
Thomas Nagel, London Review of Books
When I am hit with news of yet another terrorist attack, I often wonder what these people hope to achieve. In a depressingly timely book, Richard English tries to answer that question for a number of important cases, in order to address the broader question of his title.
Priest et al, WaPo
Agencies are probing whether the Kremlin intends to sow public distrust in the vote through a hacking and disinformation campaign.
Joshua Posaner, Politico EU
Sometimes violent migrants at âÂÂThe Jungle' disrupt one of Europe's biggest trade routes.