The Commentary Week in Review is posted on the blog every Friday. Drawing from more than two dozen English-language news outlets worldwide, the column highlights a handful of the week’s notable op-eds. Despite the wars, oil and endless Western punditry over its geopolitical significance, Edward Luttwak argued in the May cover story of Prospect Magazine that the Middle East is less relevant today than ever, and it would be best for everyone if the rest of the world learned to ignore it. “Strategically, the Arab-Israeli conflict has been almost irrelevant since the end of the cold war. And as for [...]
Debate continues from the Middle East to Europe over the fate of tens of thousands of Iraqis fleeing the violence in their homeland. New figures show that, following a drop after the initial exodus surrounding the 2003 U.S. invasion, the number of Iraqis seeking asylum in industrialized countries has jumped by almost 80 percent over the past year. Lawmakers across Europe and the Middle East are scrambling to deal with the spike, most likely a result of increased sectarian violence and civil war. Some 22,155 Iraqis sought refuge in the industrialized world in 2006, nearly double the number who did [...]
As part of our continuing effort to follow the foreign policy platforms of the major U.S. presidential candidates — right now those include in our minds Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain and Romney — we bring you the video of Barack Obama’s April 23 speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The speech was the Democratic candidate’s first major statement on foreign policy. (We should be clear that we aren’t giving Obama special treatment. When other presidential candidates make major foreign policy speeches, we’ll also cover those in this space.) Here are the New York Times and Associated Press [...]
