One of Merkel’s great strengths is an unerring sense for political reality. As such, her comments at the town meeting early last week show that nobody knows better than Germany’s chancellor just how precarious the situation in the country has become. The influx of refugees continues unabated and Merkel’s public approval ratings continue to fall […]
After losing their single-party majority for the first time in 12 years, the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) returned to power after a five-month intermission. Turkey’s supposedly nonpartisan president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has demonstrated his mastery of politics by winning the election gamble to lead his party back to government. Read Here – Politico
It was nearly dormant for months, but recent weeks have seen the return of Germany’s Islamophobic, anti-refugee Pegida movement. More confident and aggressive than ever, officials worry the hatred could spread to the mainstream. Read Here – Der Spiegel
For weeks, Germany’s debate over the refugee crisis focused on the logistics of housing and feeding the thousands arriving at the border every day. With more than 1 million refugees expected this year alone, the foremost question was whether Germans, as Chancellor Angela Merkel keeps insisting, can really “manage it.” Read Here – Politico
In the course of her political career, journalists and indeed her own party colleagues have variously described Angela Merkel as a tactician, a strategist and a pragmatist. But she’s mainly been seen as an equivocator, someone who plays her cards close to her chest. Read Here – Der Spiegel
His name, two-horned hat, and tired silhouette will be on the minds of the thousands of people gathering on a small patch of Belgian countryside this week. At the battle of Waterloo, exactly 200 years ago on 18 June 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte lost his army, his Empire, and even his freedom when he was sent […]
The conflict between Russia, Ukraine and the West is at once the world’s most significant geopolitical problem, and its most solvable. What is now needed is energetic engagement from Asia. India is just the country to lead this charge, and such Indian leadership could be the turning point that gives New Delhi the confidence it […]
That Apple should buy Greece with all the useless cash it has on hand is just a joke that won’t go away. Yet it’s true that, if big American corporations and European politicians had any imagination, they could probably engineer a bailout for the nearly bankrupt country on terms that would benefit everyone. Read Here – Bloomberg
Cameron may have felled three political opponents but he will be under no illusion of the storms ahead. They are awesome. A man who is said “to make every crisis seem reasonable” will have that talent sorely tried. His commitment has recently seemed almost half-hearted, culminating in the lacklustre start to his re-election. Only in […]
“You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose,” said Mario Cuomo, who, as a three-term governor of New York State, knew a thing or two about winning elections. But there has been precious little poetry in Britain’s election campaign, now in the final countdown to Thursday’s (May 7) voting. No soaring verse, not much in […]
looking beyond borders 