Latest posts
UK Independence Party renews culture wars
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The UK Independence Party has burst onto center stage to capture almost a quarter of the votes in local elections in Britain, threatening to upset the stable two-party system in a small part of a political backlash against globalization and interdepe...
Protests in France are more than a battle over culture
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With economic and political spheres surrendered to global markets and German politicians, the protesters in France may be trying to reclaim ownership of the cultural sphere by seizing on the gay marriage proposal.
Revolt of the technocrats
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A group of German political activists who gathered this weekend to launch an anti-euro party is betting that Merkel’s refusal to countenance change will provide fertile ground for opposition.
The Europeanization of America
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The truth is that while values and interests have divided Europeans and Americans, it is austerity and the prospect of decline that have brought them back together.
The State of the Union and the end of persuasion
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Although Barack Obama’s prodigious oratorical skills recall politicians of centuries past, the purpose of his rhetoric is different. His goal is not to change minds but to identify all the people who already agree with him and painstakingly cra...
Cameron’s backward-looking speech
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Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s long-awaited speech about Europe is a miscalculation that will leave everyone frustrated.
In 2013, the great global unraveling
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After two decades of globalization, this year will see each of the big political theaters re-erecting barriers and focusing more on domestic repairs than on global expansion.
New world, same old Israel
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The language of Israel’s politicians, the brutal efficiency of its bombing campaign and the asymmetrical death count all echo Israel’s campaigns in the past. But the political dynamics surrounding this assault could not be more different.
China and U.S. face mirror-image leadership challenges
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Although they look like opposites, the United States and China suffer from the same problems: They are introspective, self-destructive and interdependent. China’s ying is often the cause of America’s yang. The big question facing the world this w...
China’s technology revolution
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Today’s rulers in China recognize that they are playing with a river of fire that can be channeled but never fully controlled. It is not impossible that China’s technology-driven cultural revolution could strengthen the political hold of the Comm...
The great Sino-American divorce
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Since the global financial crisis in 2008, we have been living through the slow and painful end of Chimerica -- the period when the American and Chinese economies acted as one.
China’s affluence crisis
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The new generation of Chinese leaders, who rise to power this fall, will need to escape the trap of a market that overproduces and focus on the well-being of the Chinese people.
Terminating the European status quo
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There is speculation that Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career will be resurrected - Lazarus-like - in Austria, his abandoned homeland. If he does take the leap, he could find himself playing a walk-on part in the most grandiose story of his care...
Europe will leave G20 with a unilateral future
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Los Cabos may come to be seen in the future as the place where EU governments lost their religion on multilateralism.
The dark flip side of European technocracy
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How many countries will Germany need to bail out before it has erased the guilt of the Holocaust? That is the provocative question posed by Thilo Sarrazin in a new best seller that has sent jittery markets into panic. He is a narcissistic self-promot...
