WPR Blog Archive

Blake Hounshell’s closing thoughts at FP Passport on the presidential election (posted before the results came in) are spot on. But in terms of the symbolic impact, Barack Obama’s victory is a much clearer repudiation of the Bush administration in the eyes of the world than a McCain victory, rightly or wrongly, would have been. Of course, the euphoria will soon wear off, as Obama gets back to the business of advancing American dominance and hegemony in more clever and charismatic (read: Clintonian) ways than his predecessor. But America’s global line of credit just received an enormous capital infusion for […]

You wouldn’t know it from the press coverage here, but apparently there’s an election in the States today. You’d think they’d have heard about it. Seriously, you don’t need to speak French (or English English, for that matter) to get a sense of the wall-to-wall coverage: Le Monde Le Figaro Times of London Guardian I could link to the front pages of the fifty or so newspapers I’ve got bookmarked, but the short version is that the entire world is watching. Go vote.

I’ve mentioned several times recently that the events of the past three months — and in particular the activist French EU presidency under Nicolas Sarkozy — have restored the credibility of a strong EU capable of being a global actor as the goal of European integration. According to the EU Observer, the 27 EU foreign ministers assembled in Marseille feel the same way: “Europe has a telephone number,” [French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner] explained, alluding to former USsecretary of state Henry Kissinger’s quip that he didn’t know whichnumber to call when he wanted to speak to Europe. “It’s the number […]

It’s very possible that when push comes to shove, the Union for the Mediterranean will stand as Nicolas Sarkozy’s lasting legacy. Le Monde reports that the details that seemed to be blocking progress as recently as Sunday were ironed out at a conference of foreign ministers in Marseille. The headquarters will be in Barcelona, and in what was underlined as the result of a compromise, the Arab League will be a full participant in return for Israel assuming one of the permanent Asst. Secretary General seats. No word yet on what the Union will actually do. But it looks more […]

Ever wondered what exactly it means when a country goes bankrupt? This Der Spiegel article about Ukraine, Hungary, Iceland and Venezuela on the brink explains. We’ve gotten used to hearing the phrase “too big to fail” bandied about quite a bit recently. The problem is that at the same time a concerted effort is being made to get cash-rich nations to recapitalize the IMF’s bailout fund (as if that weren’t scary enough), there are hedge funds (and probably sovereign wealth fund managers) that are literally waiting to bottomfeed on entire countries. How exactly, in a globalized capital market, do you […]

Funny how now that everyone agrees we ought to deploy more troops toAfghanistan, the number being tossed around suddenly jumped from 10,000to 20,000.

So how do uphold a commitment to raise defense spending (or keep it steady as a percentage of GDP) in the face of the gathering financial meltdown? Easy. You program a five-year budget, freeze spending for the first three years, then toss the increases into the last two. Bon appetit!

File under ‘P’ for potential game-changers. Or for panda diplomacy. Either way, the China-Taiwan split is really the last vestige of the Cold War, and just as the European front of that war ended through a peaceful integration, there’s no reason (in theory) that China and Taiwan won’t eventually find a mutually acceptable final status arrangement without resorting to the worst-case scenarios of regional conflagration. Especially once the actual ideological differences between the two governments are smoothed over to the point of being undetectable. That still leaves China with a lot of deferred maintenance in terms of ethno-nationalist separatism. But […]

I just wanted to flag a couple Russia items that caught my eye. First, from RIA Novosti over the weekend, an anouncement that Russia and the EU will sign the agreement formalizing Russia’s participation in the EUFOR Chad mission. Russia had offered last spring to send a helicopter group, along with the units to man it, but the formal signing had yet to take place before the Georgia War froze up Russia- EU relations. The announcement came from a Russian diplomat, but if it’s accurate it would indicate that the EU has decided to compartmentalize its reaction to the Georgia […]

Whether you’re among those 4-8 percent of American voters who are undecided or if you just can’t get enough of all things election-related, we have selected 10 World Politics Review articles and 10 blog posts from recent months that, taken together, form a good primer on the foreign policy issues at stake in this election. Here they are, for your browsing pleasure. News and Commentary Articles 1. Arab World Suddenly Cooling to Obama, by Frida Ghitis, Oct. 302. Rethinking the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, by Bernard Finel, Oct. 173. Next President Likely Will Have More Use for the U.N., by […]

Art Goldhammer and I recently traded a back and forth and back about Sarkozy’s handling of the financial crisis, and France’s EU presidency in general. I think this takeaway from a NY Times piece on same is a decent synthesis of our differening perspectives: Sarkozyhas worked politically without any real ideology in this crisis,promising safety to the French, appealing to nationalist instincts andtrying to play an important role in Europe, and he has helped himselfin the polls, said Pierre Rousselin, the foreign editor of LeFigaro. “Sarkozyis a bit a magician without clothes, but the important thing is theperception, and he’s […]

I understand that attacking Barney Frank for calling for cuts in the defense budget, and Barack Obama for calling for ending the Bush tax cuts, makes for good electoral politics at a time when America is at war. But when the federal government just added $500 billion in debt in the month of October alone (via Andrew Sullivan), it seems reasonable to point out that eventually something’s got to give.

The most interesting aspect to the Russian navy’s latest announced exercises isn’t so much that they’re taking place, but where they’re taking place: the Indian Ocean. The strategic sea lanes that link Asia to Africa are already the object of an Indian and Chinese naval buildup, and the region was identified last summer by France’s defense white paper as a principal strategic concern. As in other aspects of its conventional military capacity, Russia has a lot of ground to make up before it represents a credible naval power. But the fact that in reestablishing its global naval presence, they’ve chosen […]

Somewhere there’s a doctoral thesis waiting to be written on Hollywoodand the rehabilitation of war in the post-Vietnam era. I’d suggest thatG.I. Jane represents the culmination of a trend that began with Officer and a Gentleman and Taps,fully integrating the third wave feminist movement into the militarycode of honor and combat. I mention it only because by some oddcoincidence, I watched G.I. Jane (overdubbed into French) on the télélast night, only to stumble across this Army Times reviewof a new PBS documentary, “Lioness” (on women who have served in combatroles in Iraq) this morning. As the review and documentary make […]