Briefing Archive

Pity Matteo Renzi. Italy’s prime minister knows that his country’s troubled banking system has put its nascent economic recovery at risk. Yet Italy’s own financial weakness and European Union rules severely constrain his options. Not all the news is bad, though. Renzi’s financial team has come up with an imaginative response to the country’s bank problem with what they call the Atlante Fund, a rescue package to buy up risky loans. But the fund has its own limits, given the precariousness of Italy’s finances, and by implication Europe’s. Past regulatory oversight or maybe just negligent private management have left Italian […]

President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima, Japan, today, the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to the site of the U.S. atomic bombing at the end of World War II. He remembered those lost in that devastating conflict and joined with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in calling for renewed attention to the task of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. The leaders of the U.S. and Japan—the only nation to have used these terrible weapons and the nation against which they were used—stood together to call for an end to nuclear proliferation. The symbolism of Obama’s visit aside, for many, […]

Although they are on opposite sides of Syria’s civil war, Russia and Saudi Arabia find themselves in similar positions. Both are presenting themselves as trying in earnest to rein in their proxies. Russia, wanting to again be considered a great power, has forced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to come to the negotiating table and perhaps can force him to make important compromises. The Saudis, wanting to be seen as reliable and essential U.S. allies in the region, claim to have organized the fragmented Syrian opposition into a moderate, cohesive body. Moscow and Riyadh may indeed have enough leverage to rein […]

ODESSA, Ukraine—When controversial former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was tapped as governor of Odessa, the strategic region on the Black Sea, last year, he hired a young team to build a showcase for reform in post-revolutionary Ukraine. Though largely shunned backed home in his native Georgia, Saakashvili was welcomed here by those fed up with the slow pace of change after the 2014 street revolution. But today the prospects for success seem to be growing dimmer by the day. Many locals in politically divided Odessa remain resistant to radical change. Saakashvili himself has fallen out with top Ukrainian officials in […]

One of U.S. President Barack Obama’s most significant measures to promote commerce with Cuba isn’t working. Last March, a few days before the president’s trip to Havana, Washington announced a new package of regulatory reforms loosening the U.S. embargo—the fourth since December 2014. One element of that package licensed U.S. financial institutions to process international transactions between Cuba and non-U.S. parties, so-called “u-turn” transactions. Because most dollar-denominated transactions are cleared through U.S. banks, the ban on these transactions severely hampered Cuban trade. In fact, lifting that prohibition was at the top of Cuba’s agenda last February when Cuban Minister of […]

Earlier this month, the leaders of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland were in Washington to attend a summit at the White House. Together with President Barack Obama, the five Nordic leaders discussed tensions with Russia, security, climate change and trade. Obama didn’t hesitate to heap praise on the Nordics. “So I really do believe that the world would be more secure and more prosperous if we just had more partners like the Nordic countries,” he said. “They consistently punch above their weight.” Obama speaking so highly of the Nordic countries is nothing new. He has lauded them for years, […]

Earlier this month, Rodrigo Duterte, a tough-talking mayor, emerged as the winner of the Philippines’ presidential election. Although the presumptive president won’t be inaugurated until June 30, his victory has already sparked worries about a dramatic reversal from his reform-minded predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, who had ushered in a six-year period of impressive economic growth and begun to address the dizzying array of political and security challenges that have led the Philippines to lag behind some of its neighbors for decades. But how much will Duterte’s rhetoric actually translate into reality at home and abroad? On domestic policy, several of […]

Oil-rich Angola is enduring serious hardship with the slump in global energy prices, and there is a sense of things being in a state of flux in a country deeply dependent on petrodollars over the past decade. Throwing major political uncertainty into the mix, in March, long-serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos announced his intention to step down and retire from active politics in 2018, which would effectively end a four-decade-long tenure as head of state. Whether dos Santos follows through with his pledge remains to be seen; he made a similar announcement in 2001, but then reneged. The context […]

As the sun sets on Latin America’s commodities boom, news from the region is rarely good. Brazil is impeaching its president. Venezuela is steeped in the worst economic and political crisis in its history. And drug wars still roil Mexico and much of Central America. Populism is alive and kicking in many countries, and the source of the next potential source of economic prosperity is uncertain. Even Chile, long the region’s model of democratic transition and economic and social progress, is experiencing its deepest political crisis since the return of democracy in 1990. President Michelle Bachelet’s approval ratings, along with […]

On Thursday, Rachid Ghannouchi, the founder of Tunisia’s Ennahda, told the French newspaper Le Monde that his party—long defined and projected as Islamist—would be “leaving political Islam behind.” Rather than Islamists, Ghannouchi says, Ennahda is a party of “Muslim Democrats,” echoing a paper that a party legislator recently published for the Brookings Institution. The move requires some clarification: Ennahda is not stripping Islam from its identity. Rather, the group will formally delineate between its political and religious activities. Its leadership will focus exclusively on politics and technocratic issues, whereas its other members will remain free to engage in the civic […]

Over the past quarter-century, citizens of Kazakhstan have developed a reputation for relative staidness. Unlike residents of other post-Soviet republics like Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine or Georgia, Kazakhstanis have largely avoided public protest, opting to sideline complaints on longstanding corruption and political repression in favor of enjoying the fruits of the country’s massive hydrocarbon windfall. Over the past three weeks, however, that reputation has begun to shift. And considering how much collapsed energy prices have gouged Kazakhstan’s economic prospects—and how myopically Astana has managed the country’s finances since—recent frustrations may be just the beginning. In late April, a series of large-scale, spontaneous […]

The results of Ireland’s general election in late February were as indecisive as anyone could have imagined, leaving a hung parliament. After unsuccessful talks about forming a grand coalition, few are confident of the stability of the new minority government, led by Fine Gael and backed, at least for now, by its longtime rival, Fianna Fail. The breaking point will most likely come on economic policy issues. For decades Ireland’s traditional party of government, Fianna Fail had been severely punished in the previous general election in 2011 for the economic collapse over which it presided. It made a strong recovery […]

Given global headlines, you might think the world is terribly off course. Geopolitical rivalry threatens stability from Eastern Europe to the South China Sea. Jihadi terrorists sow mayhem throughout the Middle East. A scary virus emerges in Latin America, spreading across borders. A Brazilian president is brought down, as the Panama Papers expose corruption in other lands. Publics everywhere, alienated by yawning inequality and anemic growth, vent their frustration at a system rigged for moneyed elites. Populist politicians, sensing the sour mood, promise to reverse globalization by building walls to keep out foreigners and abandoning trade agreements. This noisy, negative […]

South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited Iran earlier this month, pledging to forge ahead and establish a new era of relations with Tehran built on closer economic cooperation. During the three-day visit, Park and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani agreed to 30 joint economic projects, totaling more than $37.1 billion. The two sides also agreed to more than 50 memorandums of understanding dealing with everything from infrastructure cooperation and joint energy ventures to work on medical and health care projects. South Korea was eager to quickly restore relations with Tehran following the finalization of last year’s nuclear deal between Iran and […]

The series of protests that have gripped parts of Gambia since mid-April present a serious political test for longtime President Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled the tiny West African state since seizing power in a bloodless coup nearly 22 years ago. The protests come at a time when the Gambian government faces international censure for alleged human rights violations, amid reports of security forces employing heavy-handed tactics against demonstrators. With a deteriorating fiscal situation and a presidential election scheduled for December, Gambia could find itself mired in turmoil for months to come. Yet despite Jammeh’s precarious position, the Gambian strongman […]

Last week, the Long War Journal reported that the “self-proclaimed head of the Islamic State’s arm in the Sahara has reportedly threatened to attack Morocco,” according to an audio statement sent to Al Jazeera. The message’s authenticity has not been verified, and there has been no official media release of the tape. But it drew attention to the potential terror threats facing Morocco, which has for years taken pride in its domestic anti-radicalization programs and has emerged as an important counterterrorism partner for European countries, including France and Belgium. In 2014, the leader of the Islamic State (ISIS), Abu Bakr […]

The Seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the first such meeting in 36 years, ended Monday with much pageantry and fanfare in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, but with little evidence that North Korea has changed its policy line in any substantive way. Kim Jong Un received the new title “party chairman”—his late father remains “eternal party secretary” and his grandfather “eternal president.” A new economic plan was also announced, while top positions in the party were reshuffled. Other than Kim appearing for the first time in a Western-style suit to deliver his speeches, the party congress was […]