Europe
Business as Usual
To confront Iran, the United States must first confront Europe--and more specifically, the continent's powerful business lobby. This confrontation will come into focus in the next months. As Iran refuses Barack Obama's open-handed offer of engagement, the administration will turn towards sanctioning the Islamic Republic. And while there are surely ways in which the United States can tighten the economic screws on the Mullahs, it is Europe that has a much livelier trading relationship with Iran. In fact, Iran is far more economically dependent on Europe than even China and Russia. READ MORE >>
Being Human
Quiet Chaos -- IFC Films The Girl From Monaco -- Magnolia Pictures READ MORE >>
What Happens When There's Nowhere Left For Trash?
Realism In Action
State Department European affairs chief Phil Gordon to visit Belarus, meet with "Europe's last dictator." --Michael Crowley READ MORE >>
A Nation of Commentators
Is China's Climate Position Softening?
At this point, we can make out the trench lines in the ongoing talks over a global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. China and India don't want to adopt hard caps on greenhouse-gas emissions just yet. They argue that most of the excess carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere was put there by industrialized powers like the United States and Europe, so it's only fair that those same wealthy countries do the initial heavy lifting to curb emissions, giving the developing nations more time to focus on economic growth, get rich, electrify their rural areas, and so forth. READ MORE >>
"...A Government In Tel Aviv..." What Nonsense! Alas, It's Also Rancid Bigotry And Deceit
The phrase, "a government in Tel Aviv," does not come from an article written in 1948 during which the provisional government of Israel had, in fact, headquartered itself in the city then only 40 years old. Not at all. READ MORE >>
Europe's Advantage In A Recession
As Paul Krugman has noted, automatic stabilizers--i.e., nondiscretionary government policies that stabilize demand--appear to have played an important role in keeping the current recession from getting even worse. And now economists affiliated with the Institute for the Study of Labor (the European version of our NBER) have attempted to quantify the size of the stabilization effects. READ MORE >>
The World is Bumpy
On innumerable trips to Singapore over the past decade, I always made sure to stop by the Old Tanglin Officers' Mess, the city-state's version of the State Department. There, amid a street of gleaming colonial-style buildings and perfectly trimmed tropical foliage, the best diplomats in Asia--fluent English- speakers with a staggering command of regional politics and sharply tailored suits--would entertain me at the after-work bar. READ MORE >>
Iran And The Politics Of Pipelines
Why care about what happens in Iran? There's the prospect of a nuclear arms race in the region--and of Israel initiating a war with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. There's also Iran's major role in Iraq and somewhat less important but still significant role in Afghanistan. Iran could be a force for stability or instability in the most volatile region in the world stretching from Israel and Lebanon on the west to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east. So what happens there matters. READ MORE >>
