Leslie Gelb, president emeritus at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue Foreign Policy, argues that even though the United States is the world’s “indispensable leader” it cannot dictate solutions to global ills. The US lacks the power to act alone. America needs the support of some […]
Today Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would give up all of its nuclear weapons if other nations that held them did the same thing (ie. the US and others). Putin was at a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who had been urging Moscow to cultivate more positive relations […]
Today US Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced in a Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee hearing that Russia has come around to share the same feelings as the US about the urgency of the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program. Gates explained that in a previous meeting with the then-president and now current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir […]
Last week U.S. President Obama directly spoke to the Muslim world (again), and it seems that this time everyone has taken notice. In the President’s historic address from Cairo – supported by Al Azhar and Cairo University, there was great humility presented in order to try and ease the current tensions between the Muslim world […]
2,000. The United States spends nearly $2,000 a person on defense and accounts for over 40 percent of global military expenditure. Yesterday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released its annual yearbook on arms and international security. Worldwide defense spending reached $1.46 trillion in 2008, up four percent from 2007 and 45 percent since 1999. […]
China’s burgeoning economic growth over the past several decades has been concentrated in the east. Western China is relatively poor and inaccessible and a large proportion of ethnic minorities reside in Tibet, Xinjiang and other western areas. Two recent articles in The New York Times highlight China’s west. Last week, an English version of a […]
Foreign policy is surprisingly becoming a large factor in Iran’s upcoming presidential elections. Iranians go to the polls on Friday and will choose among the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his three challengers. Former prime minister Mir Hussein Moussavi is perceived to be Mr. Ahmadinejad’s strongest opponent. Last week, in a nationally televised debate Mr. […]
Brazil is looking better than Russia these days. Its economy is more market-oriented and better structured. Its exports are much more diversified. Its domestic market is stronger, as are its banks.
Are new forms of authoritarian governments undermining democracy within and beyond their borders? Are geopolitically important countries – including China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Venezuela – challenging democratic development and threatening the emergence of an international order based on open societies and human rights? A new report by Freedom House, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and […]
Voting for the European Parliament began today in Britain and the Netherlands. Over the next four days, more than 375 million people in 27 countries are eligible to cast a ballot. Despite the importance of the parliament, most analysts fear turnout will be low. Voting numbers have fallen as the European Union has expanded and […]
What is missing in this speech is anything Churchillian. What is missing is realism…for example, a statement that the U.S. is determined to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons by unstable or radical regimes, be they Muslim or not.
While China is beginning to go green and planning strict fuel economy standards, a Chinese company reached a preliminary agreement to buy the Hummer brand from General Motors. Just as the Hummer came to symbolize GM’s fall, could the sale be a sign of a shifting global balance of power? Photo from Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images.
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