COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
25 JUly 2008
• A selection of op-eds and editorials from the U.S. and around the world. Sign up for the email alert or subscribe to the RSS feed.
Obama In Berlin, U.S. Mideast Policy, and Zimbabwe’s National Unity
July 25, 2008
Australian
o National Unity: David Coltart of the opposition MDC in Zimbabwe writes that there should be no consideration of a permanent government of national unity in the country, with Robert Mugabe retaining the presidency indefinitely.
Business Daily (Kenya)
o Dead Doha: In an editorial, the paper considers the importance of the WTO talks in Geneva for the developing world, and says Doha may as well be dead; but developing nations should argue their case strongly at WTO, it says.
Business Day (South Africa)
o Unfair: Brenda Wardle, a legal consultant in Johannesburg, writes on why she believes the president of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, who faces charges of corruption, cannot get a fair trial.
Christian Science Monitor
o Pick Hillary: Madeleine Kunin, a former governor of Vermont, believes Hillary Clinton may be Barack Obama’s wisest choice as a vice-presidential running mate.
Daily Star (Lebanon)
o Welcome Changes: In an editorial, the paper notes changes in American foreign policy recently and says they are both welcome and overdue.
Daily Telegraph
o Swooning Europe: Toby Harnden, the paper’s U.S. editor, writes of Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin on Thursday that while his soaring rhetoric may inspire swoons in Europe, American swing states voters might be a tad more sceptical.
Economist
o Unhappy America: In an editorial, the Economist says nations, like people, occasionally get the blues; and right now the United States, normally the world’s most self-confident place, is glum.
o Troubled Region: In a further editorial, on American policy in the Middle East, the paper detects a change of course by President Bush and says he may bequeath a decent American policy for this troubled region.
o Force For Good: Also in an editorial, the paper says the arrest of Radovan Karadzic shows how much good the EU can do if it stays open to new members.
o Time To Go: The Economist also says, in an editorial, that Morgan Tsvangirai is right to be holding talks with Robert Mugabe – about the dictator’s exit.
Financial Times
o Raise Rates: In an editorial, the paper notes the rising inflation in East Asian economies and says the treatment is clear. Interest rates across Asia must start to rise, it says.
o Fannie Risk: Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz writes that the proposed bail-out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac entails the socialisation of risk from an administration supposedly committed to free-market principles.
o China Trade: Jack Ma of Alibaba Group writes that embracing freer trade – with China as an engine of global economic growth – is the best chance to jump-start economies and provide job opportunities in both developed and developing nations.
Guardian
o Different Reaction: Columnist Jonathan Steele contrasts what he calls the raving crowds that greeted Barack Obama in Berlin with the apprehension with which he is met in Israel.
o China’s Games: Columnist Simon Jenkins writes, as the Olympic Games approach, that the only vindication of giving the games to China will be if its rulers are taken to task. To date, he says, they’ve had it all their way.
Hindu
o Nepal Stability: The paper writes, in an editorial, of its disappointment at the way the Maoist candidate for president in Nepal was thwarted, and says this is likely to have serious consequences for the political stability of the young republic.
Independent (UK)
o Scramble For Oil: In an editorial, the paper says the news that the Arctic may contain about one-sixth of the world’s undiscovered oil is bound, at a time of high oil prices, to accelerate what could well be the world’s last great colonial scramble.
International Herald Tribune
o Ballot Problems: In an editorial, the paper says that despite the difficulties with ballots in Florida in the election of 2000 there is still a problem with badly-designed ballots which is likely to be particularly acute this fall.
o True Culprits: Henry Lee of the Harvard Kennedy School writes thatthe true culprits of high oil prices are unsustainable rates of consumption growth and a world oil supply that is unlikely to meet forecasted consumption levels.
Jerusalem Post
o Troubling: In an editorial on an interview the paper conducted with Barack Obama while he was in Israel this week, the Post says the candidate’s apparent sanguinity over an Israel shrunk into the 1949 Armistice Lines is troubling.
Jordan Times
o No Risks: Columnist George Hishmeh writes that Barack Obama is unlikely to take any risks and deviate much from his declared positions on most of the key foreign policy issues, especially the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and certainly not this early in the presidential race.
Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
o Zim Talks: In an editorial on talks between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe, the paper says power-sharing on its own will solve nothing — the first step must be to strip Mr Mugabe and his securocrats of executive power and place management of the economy in different hands.
New York Times
o Wounded Soldiers: In an editorial, the paper says after a flurry of apologies and investigations, the U.S. Army resolved to improve treatment of wounded soldiers. But, the paper contends,things are not getting better.
o Trade Obstacles: In a further editorial, on the WTO talks taking place in Geneva, the paper says the world’s leading trading nations seem ready to abandon the World Trade Organization’s seven-year effort to reduce some of the world’s obstacles to trade.
o Obama’s Rhetoric: Op-ed Columnist David Brooks writes of Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin that the golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more.
Times of London
o Alternative Lifestyle: Igor Toronyi-Lalic writes that we shouldn’t be surprised by Radovan Karadzic’s double life as an alternative medicine guru.
o Admiring America: In an editorial, the Times is encouraged by the reaction to Barack Obama in Berlin, noting that Europeans are recovering their admiration for America.
Wall Street Journal
o Barack In Berlin: In an editorial, the paper says Barack Obama’s insistence in his Berlin speech on the importance of defeating terror squares oddly with a political campaign whose central premise is that losing in Iraq is a matter of little consequence to U.S. or European interests.
o Wobbly Germans: Matthew Kaminski, a member of the Journal’s editorial board, describes Germany’s foreign policy as inconsistent and confused and says any American president who seeks to build on the recent progress in forging a new partnership with Europe will have to contend with a wobbly Germany.
o Fannie Scandal: Dick Armey, a former House majority leader, describes the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac bailout as a scandal.
o No Action: In an editorial in the paper’s Asia edition, the Journal criticises ASEAN’s lack of action on Myanmar.
Washington Post
o Lucky Obama: Op-ed Columnist Eugene Robinson notes the role of luck in the election campaign, saying that while the fates had conspired to give Barack Obama a dream photo-op in Berlin, John McCain appears jinxed.
o Iraq Primary: Op-ed Columnist Charles Krauthammer jokes that in a stunning upset this week Barack Obama won the Iraq primary, when the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki expressed support for his troop withdrawal timetable.
o Political Honor: CFR Senior Fellow Michael Gerson writes about a new biography of the anti-slavery campaigner, William Wilberforce, and says it shows that feats of honor are possible, even in a very political life.
Washington Times
o Anti-American: In an editorial, the paper says the ascension to power of new president, Dmitry Medvedev, in Russia has done little to reverse the anti-American course established by his predecessor and current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.