It’s bad enough when a person drowns in debt. Shockwaves multiply when a corporation teeters on the verge of failure. The economy becomes even more agitated when a country declares bankruptcy, as Iceland did in 2008 and Hungary and Latvia almost did in 2009. But Dubai? The global economy is obviously still in bad shape… Continue reading Bye-Bye Dubai
Back in 2003, when Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) put together the collection of essays Power Trip on the emerging foreign policy of the Bush administration, our big debate was over continuity versus change. Was the aggressive unilateralism of George W. Bush and his cohort a wholly new creation? Or was it simply business as… Continue reading Exceptional or Exceptionalism
Imagine finding yourself in the driver’s seat of a car heading directly at a brick wall. You panic: What to do? Fortunately, there are three people in the car with you, and they all have very firm advice. The person in the passenger seat tells you to push the pedal to the metal. Right behind… Continue reading Hitting the Brakes on Afghanistan
Critics of the Obama administration were delighted at the images from the president’s recent trip to Asia. There was the deep bow before Emperor Akihito. There was the group photo with the head of the Burmese junta. There was the deferential press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao. “There is no reason for an American… Continue reading Obama Takes a Bow
The traffic circles in Tirana, the capital of Albania, are a free-for-all. There are no lanes. There are no signs. There are no rules. On a visit to Tirana several days ago, I drove into the swirling chaos with all my senses alert, relieved that the rental car came with insurance. If driving was a… Continue reading Europe’s Wild East
No, it’s not a joke. Albanians think highly enough of George W. Bush to name a café after him. There’s even a George W. Bush Street in the capital of Tirana, albeit a rather short, crooked one. Bush received a warm welcome when he became the first U.S. president to visit the country in 2007.… Continue reading Postcard from Tirana
President Obama has talked a lot about ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He won a Nobel Peace prize largely on the strength of those words. Now, he needs to translate words into actions and vindicate the Nobel committee’s decision. When he goes to Japan this month, the president should make an unprecedented visit to… Continue reading Obama: Visit Hiroshima
Russia is disappearing. So is Japan. Europe is next to go. It’s not the rising waters of global warming that threaten these parts of the world. The problem is more basic. The Russians and Japanese, as well as large numbers of Europeans, are not having enough children to replace themselves. The birth rates across a… Continue reading New Neighbors, New Economy
At the recent off-the-record meeting between U.S. and North Korean representatives at a conference in California, journalists were eager for any crumb of information about what the two interlocutors said to each other. The dialogue was “useful,” according to the North Korean representative. The U.S. side remarked that the mood was “better than we’ve seen… Continue reading North Korea: Journalists vs. Diplomats
This year in Istanbul, the flags on Republic Day seemed extra large. It wasn’t a special anniversary year. Turkey was celebrating its 86th year as a modern secular state. Nevertheless, the sheer number of flags – 60,000 hanging from government buildings, draped across skyscrapers, dominating squares – was unprecedented. The display of 48,000 fireworks over… Continue reading Reading Ramadan in Istanbul