Hat-tip to Frédéric LeMaître for reminding me of this: Maybe the biggest opponent of the apocalyptic, Thomas Mann-induced vision of a German Europe that Alphaville has been fearing and which I invoked in a recent post, might actually be Germany itself. Ulrike Guérot from ECFR has put forward an argument recently that Germany were in […]
Arguably the most fascinating exercise one can indulge in ever since the early days of the eurozone crisis is to compare the coverage of said crisis in the German media discourse with that everywhere else in Europe. Within Germany, the focus lies on the hard-working, financially frugal Germans who fail to understand why they should […]
G-20 world leaders meeting in Seoul, South Korea, concluded the summit late Friday by issuing a joint communiqué, with no specifics, agreeing only in general terms to curb “persistently large imbalances” in saving and spending. But deep divisions, especially over the US-China currency dispute, left G-20 officials negotiating all night to draft a watered-down statement for the leaders to endorse, keeping alive a dispute that raises fears of a global trade & currency war, and fears of rising protectionism among nations.
This is nothing new per se of course, it has been argued before that European integration proceeds only when faced with an important obstacle. In that sense once again the financial crises have led to a number of heretofore unimaginable cooperative steps of governments giving up national sovereignty. The French President Sarkozy has proposed an […]
Europe in the past has seen its fair share of successful (and unsuccessful) mass movements descending in the street and clamoring for justice of course. The 1968-69 demonstrations spectacularly failed (Prague) or led to ambiguous changes in the social life styles of society difficult to measure (Germany, France). The 1989 mobilizations were an unequivocal success […]
A spectre is haunting Europe once again, yet unlike during the 1840s it is not Communism but instead the continent-wide popular appeal of modern far right, xenophobic politicians and beliefs which menace the traditional parties’ grip on power. While the specific situations in European countries differ widely, common trends and forces are clearly discernible.Let us […]
The recent news of threats emanating from Pakistan and Algeria have spooked the American and European public milling about in great and famous cities. But the reasons behind the news that seems to single out machinations wrought in Pakistan remain murky, as they must by dint of the ways and means of intelligence. However, given […]
Amnesty International appoints its first Indian Secretary General: Salil Shetty will take over as the new Secretary General of Amnesty International in June 2010. Shetty has served as the Director of the UN’s Millenium Campaign for the past six years. According to Peter Pack, the chair of Amnesty International’s Executive Committee, “As we approach our […]
For all the debate over the American immigration system, nothing can compare to the terrible institutional injustice that Germany is putting Mohammad Eke through. Seriously, how could this policy make any sense?
Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell. And all was good throughout the land (not really). That it happened was a great human story—a pinnacle event of freedom (in its most sincere sense) that has brought millions of Europeans into a prosperous, liberal democratic order. The conventional wisdom, in this country at least, is that […]
1) A photo essay from Der Spiegel: The west-east German border, then and now. 2) John Mearsheimer argues for the United States to leave Afghanistan—but that Obama won’t because of domestic political considerations. 3) Americans are overhwelmingly in favor of a ban on texting while driving (this wouldn’t be a problem if our infrastructure was […]
In an aspect of parliamentary politics that many Americans simply can’t understand, Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) performed worse in general elections than they did four years ago—but this time, get to form their preferred coalition government. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) bested its 2005 total by nearly fifty percent, jumping to 14.5 percent of […]
All the newspapers are buzzing with one news: the disclosure of a clandestine uranium enrichment plant in Iran. Here is President Obama’s statement on the Iranian nuclear facility that he made along with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Sarkozy today at the G-20 meeting. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. We are here to […]
The Newsweek has published an article revealing that Iran has not restarted its nuclear-weapons development program. According to the article: U.S. intelligence agencies have informed policymakers at the White House and other agencies that the status of Iranian work on development and production of a nuclear bomb has not changed since the formal National Intelligence […]
Looks like the United States will not be alone in pushing for tough sanctions on Iran. Both French and German leaders have warned Iran that it could face new sanctions if it does not show a willingness to negotiate on its nuclear program. Speaking after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin, the […]