Greatness is an odd word because it signifies both quantity and quality. In the case of Russia, the two are easily confused. Even after the huge territorial losses incurred with the Soviet collapse, Russia still accounts for one-seventh of the Earth’s surface. Therefore, it has a geographical imperative to think big. Russia is unlike Britain and France, which shrank back to their middle-sized home nations after losing their […]
Five years have passed since the advent of the current crisis, and while the beast has since morphed from a financial crisis into a confidence and debt crisis, some mantras have become so deeply engrained into our collective psyche after loud proclamations and endless repetitions that they feature is almost any discussion about the future […]
Many foreign policy mandarins might not like or understand it, but the foreign policy operating environment is changing quickly. When in 2011 the Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, was unable to get in touch with his Bahraini counterpart during the heat of the protest movement there, he opted to publicly shame him via Twitter. When General Electric was […]
Four years after the start of the Great Recession, the global economy has not recovered, voters are losing patience and governments around the world are falling like ninepins. This is a situation conducive to revolutionary thinking, if not yet in politics, then maybe in economics. In the past few months the International Monetary Fund, previously […]
Austria has a newcomer on the political scene and, in contrast to neighboring Germany, it is not a rabble-rousing band of computer nerds. Billionaire Frank Stronach made a fortune in the auto parts industry. Now, he has created a new political party in the hopes of shaking up the status quo. Read Here – Der […]
Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant former Italian prime minister, does not love Germany. He made that blatantly clear during his last skit in Rome, when he appeared at a press conference to present a new book by Renato Brunetta titled “The Great Scam”. “Germany is a hegemonic state, not a country that acts in solidarity”, Berlusconi […]
They say a good news story is like an onion. The more one peels it, the newer and fresher are the layers that surface. If depth and longevity are the gold standards for a news story, then the assassinations of four Iranian opposition members at the Mykonos Restaurant in Berlin in September 1992 surpasses that […]
Germany shoulders much of the blame from the rest of the Eurozone. Instead of searching for fiscal solutions, many countries are retreating to stereotypes of the past. For four years, Europe has been trying to solve its financial difficulties. Those who hold political power – especially Germany and France – are attempting (with limited success) […]
Europe has been reinventing itself since 1945, and last Monday yet another blueprint for the Continent was put forth. This one is a 12-page document from the foreign ministers of 11 nations after nine months of negotiations. Read Here – Christian Science Monitor
Barack Obama had a lot on his hands last week with attacks on U.S. embassies across the Middle East, but in Europe, a big story buried by the drama of firefights in Libya, Cairo riots, and tumult in Tunisia should have him sleeping a bit easier. In fact, he might want to send a thank-you […]
looking beyond borders 