In these days of multiple crises ingrained assumptions loom large as obstacles to be overcome. This goes for international relations as much as for the tottering financial system that has been absorbing most political attention in recent months. I just stumbled upon a number of interrelated misguided and, in mainstream discussion, rarely examined assumptions on my laptop. They appeared in an article published a year ago by John Ikenberry in Foreign Affairs entitled: The Rise of China and the Future of the West – can the Liberal System Survive? A quite appropriate read on my one but last day in Beijing, after having had an opportunity to look at Chinese life up close here and in Kunming and other places in Yunnan (a spectacularly beautiful province, by the way). Now, I like to read Ikenberry. I think that in earlier writing he has made important points about the example of liberal governance and ideals of emancipation upheld by the United States and Europe after World War II. The example by itself brought much positive change in many parts of the world during that last third of the twentieth century that saw the consolidation of a relatively peaceful and stable world...

...it in them to live up to the ideals and imagination that was common among their predecessors of the formative years of the European Community. The highly respected prime minister and finance minister of Luxemburg, Jean-Claude Juncker, is one of them and is widely regarded as an ideal possible president of the European Commission. He chairs the regular meetings of the 16 member states forming so-called Euroland, having exhanged their original currencies for the Euro. But Luxemburg is among the smallest of member states, and Sarkozy has already shown to have no qualms about placing himself on a collision course with Juncker. European thinkers who could enrich the current deliberations concerning political measures to cope with the current economic crises with plausible and original ideas also exist. But these do not appear to have been invited onto Europe’s highest levels where, we must not forget, officials confer with each other in the conceptual straightjackets they squeezed themselves into when they accepted that the guiding genius of the market would render unnecessary what they are now asked to do – make major political decisions. They are entirely unprepared. Decades of believing “We won!” and belief in the superiority of “the market”...

...of Ministry of Finance officials through a myriad of largely unaccountable administrative entities. Among many other functions, it is crucial in sustaining the Japanese Government Bond system – which should not be called a market because it is deliberately insulated from market forces. The national financing function of the postal savings system dates from the later war years when, along with the supposedly commercial banks, it helped ensure an unimpeded flow of funds to the munitions industry. That arrangement formed the basis of an intricate system of financing that served postwar Japan’s legendary rapid reconstruction. Once that was accomplished, the huge amounts that were allocated through the “second budget” found new purposes under the control of Japan’s postwar political genius Kakuei Tanaka – the most influential politician of two generations, who was most powerful when working behind the scenes. Tanaka ran an “army” of parliamentarians and political operatives that excelled in guaranteeing electoral success through public spending on infrastructure. In its post-Tanaka development this tradition has bestowed upon Japan numerous unnecessary tunnels, bridges and three-lane highways leading to nowhere or into unmovable mountain-sides. These porkbarrel benefits are still significant for many campaigning politicians, especially LDP candidates. Hence the “background story”...

...since the Enlightenment. Come back and help recreate a world in which a phrase like “values dear to our hearts” still has meaning. An improved global order cannot come about if the label of “anti-American” is automatically and unthinkingly slapped on any serious analysis of anti-democratic trends, of political excesses and abuse when, as so often happens, the United States provides the clearest examples. Cries of “anti-American” amount to intimidation, as do the labels “leftist” and “bleeding heart liberal” thrown at those whose conscience and intelligence drives them to rethink political purpose amid their country’s technocracy and corrupted media. In all the sadness and anger after September 11, the world expressed a hope through much commentary that the tragedy might lead to a serious rethinking of America’s political and economic purposes. To support this hope is not to endorse the notion that Americans “had it coming” — of course, no American action in the world has made the terrorist attacks morally comprehensible. But that does not excuse Americans for failing to rethink national purposes in a world that they dominate. The hope may still be realized, but only if the millions of Americans of goodwill wake up and speak out....

...meet some of the roughly 400 people who had come from literally all corners of the world and who – certainly the ones I met – clearly had their hearts in the right place. I do not want to detract from their seriousness and hard work as they try to help alleviate dire conditions of poverty, ecological crisis, and other fairly concrete ills of the world in connection to which human action might make a difference. But would their causes not be better served if at least some of this energy was channelled into efforts to revive countervailing power against the forces that cause the problems of their concern to begin with? One of the biggest central notions of the forum is ‘sustainable development’. When listening to the earnest accounts presented at one of the preliminary sessions I suddenly felt a compulsion to comment on it all as an outsider, thinking myself to be eminently qualified by the fact that the term sustainable development had, until then, giving me the jitters. Practically all attention has gone to sustainable methods, while the very things to be developed tend to get a cursory glance and appear to be mostly taken for granted....

and a new Sampiemon column. Who in his or her right mind does not want to help Barack Obama succeed as President of the United States? Almost everyone in Europe hopes he does, so is the overwhelming general impression. And Europeans should help him, so write a number of American commentators. They should end their unwillingness to cooperate with Washington. What that means for the liberal hawks, over-represented among them, was conveyed by a Thomas Friedman column shortly after the election. This correspondent, who has what must be the most enviable job in contemporary journalism, may not be much as a political analyst, but as a weathervane indicating the direction of the winds of received opinion in Washington he certainly is useful. You wanted Obama, now you have him, and it is therefore time to do something in return, so spoke Friedman to the Europeans. And that something is mainly to send more troops to Afghanistan. More misconceived advice for helping Obama is hard to imagine. We do not yet have a clear idea of what his true thoughts are about Afghanistan and what he is being told by relevant advisers. It is a central question among American friends and...