This week, an unusual opinion piece appeared on the Wall Street Journal online. Tawfik Hamid wrote, “Islam Should Prove It’s a Religion of Peace.” Looking back over the past few months, I have noticed that a common theme in articles about religion is “proof.” Specifically, the question is: Who is responsible for proving facts about […]
Today Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed his worry about the security of Chinese investments in American debt. The US has taken hard hits from the global financial crisis and Beijing is naturally worried. Wen said: “To be honest, I am a little bit worried and I would like to … call on the United States […]
Gaffes by the United States in dealing with the world’s rising powers seem to be happening frequently. Joshua Keating writes an entertaining post in Foreign Policy Passport about rescheduling Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s meeting at the White House, misspelling his name and giving DVDs as a gift to British Prime Minister Gordon […]
Over 40 years after Charles de Gaulle tossed NATO and United States forces out of France and withdrew from NATO’s military command, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced France’s intentions to become a full member of the alliance. In a speech on Wednesday, Sarkozy remarked that times have changed since de Gaulle’s decision and it was now […]
How long are they? His coattails, that is. He’s at 84% approval, largely due to the perception that Brazil is doing better than most in this global financial crisis, and it is. His pick for his successor is his chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, a stalwart in the PT (Lula’s leftist Workers Party), who […]
According to Fareed Zakaria, the answer to the above question is a resounding No. Zakaria’s main argument is that if we try to fully understand the phenomenon of Islamic radicalism, there will be a clearer picture that not all Islamists are potential terrorists. The article in Newsweek, “Learning to Live with Radical Islam,” focuses on […]
My colleague David Kampf in his posting today, draws our attention to the current Economic Cooperation Organization summit in Tehran in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicts the collapse of capitalism. Scary, right? It is another firebrand speech from an energetic leader of a rising regional power with a productive nuclear program and a lot […]
If the end of the Cold War marked the defeat of communism and the rise of the United States as the world’s dominant power, can the financial crisis and end of US hegemony signal the defeat of liberal democracy and capitalism? No, but Iran’s president seems to think so. In a speech to regional leaders […]
When assessing the world’s rising powers, we often focus on the most evident forms of strength – military, economic and diplomatic. But, does a country’s soft power impact the global balance of power? The term soft power was coined by Joseph S. Nye Jr., a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School (and rumored new United […]
This blog mostly has discussed the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as the main rising powers of the world. One often overlooked rising power is Turkey. Turkey has been an important bridge between the East and West for centuries (as the modern Turkish state and previous national and imperial incarnations). In the 21st century, […]
It will be difficult to “reset” relations between the former Cold War foes if the United States and Russia can’t communicate. In an effort to jokingly symbolize a fresh start, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a fake reset button as a gift to her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a meeting […]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva. US-Russia relations are looking positive. Yesterday, NATO and Russia restarted relations after they were cut off over last summer’s Georgia conflict. This week, Russian President Medvedev turned down a proposal by US President Obama suggesting an exchange for a […]
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