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Descending Into Chaos
Yemen is headed for all-out civil war, another theater of the sadly familiar cast of proxy wars, sectarian violence, state collapse, and militia rule. The only actors who will prosper are the likes of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
In 140 Characters (#i140c): Toomas Hendrik Ilves
The Estonian president on austerity and difficult neighbors.
How to Avoid a Grexit
Greece needs to make reforms if it is to return to growth, and it is more likely that this will happen inside the euro than outside. The key is to reactivate a logic that has worked many times: solidarity in exchange for reforms.
Nothing Will Be Clarified
Has anybody counted how often the headline “Now Grexit is unavoidable” has popped up in the media over the last few months? In fact, the ongoing Greek debt crisis is predictable only in its unpredictability.
The Other “No” Camp
Angela Merkel’s government seem to be taking the accelerating Greek crisis in good spirits, and it isn’t hard to see why: with Sunday’s referendum, Greece’s government has taken the country’s fate into its own hands
Missed Connections
The European Union and India have quite a bit to offer one another. Why is it so difficult to get them to talk?
If the Euro Fails, Merkel Fails
German Chancellor Angela Merkel may not be to blame for the crisis in Greece, but her handling has contributed to the emergency the euro finds itself in now.
Death of a Salesman
There was nothing he wouldn’t sell and very little he couldn’t buy. Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski was communist East Germany’s foremost capitalist. Having outlived the state he served by a quarter century, he died on June 21 at the age of 82.
In a Downward Spiral
Don’t fall for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear grandstanding: economically, he has his back to the wall. The deployment of US troops and heavy weapons in Eastern Europe would only play into his hands.
The Waiting Game
No, the West has not (yet) lost Ukraine, and the fragile Minsk truce and Western sanctions on Moscow have not (yet) failed. But Vladimir Putin’s 19th-century fixation on national military greatness may yet spoil attempts to stabilize the situation.
At the Peak of Her Power
This week’s G7 meeting at Schloss Elmau may not have produced many tangible results, but it did offer yet another display of the power German Chancellor Angela Merkel currently wields in Europe.
In 140 Characters (#i140c): Jens Stoltenberg
NATO’s Secretary General on expecting the unexpected and how to relax in snow-deprived Brussels.
Myths of Austerity – and Paul Krugman
Seen from the other end of the Atlantic, the solution to the euro crisis always seemed obvious to some – not least NYT columnist Paul Krugman. Yet the Nobel Prize-winning economist has been wrong on virtually everything he has said about European fiscal policy.
Exhibition Match
The US Department of Justice’s indictment of leading FIFA officials is likely the result of successful cooperation with between US and European authorities, and relied on robust data collection. This example of successful surveillance could do with a bit more fanfare.
Europe by Numbers: Continental Drift
Recent polls show: Europeans want more independence from the United States, Germans in particular. However, Washington is still by far the preferred partner.
Helpless and Halfhearted
The extent to which the United States and Europe doubt the worth of their own systems and values has become self-destructive.
