...East, commercial ties between the two countries, and how we address the financial crisis that has put such a strain on the economies of all countries around the world.” Lavrov responded with: “I think we work in a very pragmatic, businesslike way on the basis of the common interest whenever our positions coinside, and on the basis of respect to each other whenever we have disagreements, trying to narrow the disagreements for the benefit of our countries and the international stability.” Directly addressing Obama, he added: “And I can convey to you once again that President Medvedev is really looking forward to meeting you in Moscow in July.” Not much of this optimistic tone can be found in the mainstream media. The story there revolves primarily around incidents that tease the imagination in a way reminiscent of how it has been fed throughout Cold War decades. In line with the tradition in those days, these relate one day to the deportation of Russian diplomats accredited with the NATO Russia Council in Brussels as persona non grata (the two were accused of spying for Russia). And on another day the news relates to the NATO summer manoeuvres in Georgia, which a...

...of moves that could have become part of the counterrevolution for which the American nation seemed prepared, at least in principle, the freshly inaugurated president began by bending over backwards to accommodate Republicans in Congress and right-wing opinion makers in the media. A very small number had voiced grave doubts earlier about his plans based on his choice of Robert Rubin acolytes like Larry Summers and Tim Geithner and other officials on the top two layers of economic officialdom. These had formed the very financial policy elite creating the deregulated circumstances that made the financial crisis possible. Some more wondered in what way Rahm Emanuel, product of the Chicago Democratic machine, could possibly bend actual policy in a direction promised by Obama’s rhetoric. Fewer could see that the most trusted confidant in Obama’s entourage, Valerie Jarrett, was not the kind of person with the worldview and deeper understanding of global necessities to in any way impress upon the new president the dire seriousness of the situation he was now expected to help shape. Widespread hope for a new beginning, something that Americans learn to consider as a kind of birthright, had been so strong that Obama’s supporters explained away his...

...Gaza could only be observed, and that sparsely so, from a distance, from refugees, and from Al Jazeera broadcasts. In that way the impression that Israel had chosen its use of arms for defending itself and was very careful in its choice of targets could continue to flourish. Hamas was accused of using the Palestinian population as a shield, while foreign audiences are hardly aware of the fact that Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on the globe, which turns any armed intervention into a slaughtering party. Why have the international media been such easy victims of Israeli propaganda? Is it prejudice that drives them? Is it the effect of the American filter through which we all get most of our international news which gives this news its terrible slant? What has been kept far in the background in most analyses is that Hamas won elections, that the Palestinian Authority has kept it away from power, and that the international community has been boycotting it. Could an honest account of the circumstances of life, life ebbing away, and death in Gaza now create some compensation for that inaccurate reporting? Sarkozy now pleads for a major international conference...

...ability to wage offensive war against his own citizens. (…) However, while every alliance member voted for the Libya mission, less than half have participated at all, and fewer than a third have been willing to participate in the strike mission. Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they can’t. The military capabilities simply aren’t there.” For example: “We have the spectacle of an air operations center (in Italy) designed to handle more than 300 sorties a day struggling to launch about 150. Furthermore, the mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country – yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference.” And then comes Gates with a grand conclusion: “In the past, I’ve worried openly about NATO turning into a two-tiered alliance: Between members who specialize in ‘soft’ humanitarian, development, peacekeeping, and talking tasks, and those conducting the ‘hard’ combat missions. Between those willing and able to pay the price and bear the burdens of alliance commitments, and...

...North Korea – one of the most important strategic issues in Japan’s neighborhood – Japan plays an entirely subordinate role. Koizumi’s North-Korean initiative went haywire because he had not thought it through, and had not made it part of a much broader strategy that would have included a marshalling of forces so as to ensure a broad national grasp of his goal. Diplomacy with Japan’s neighbors has virtually come to a standstill under Koizumi, as relations with China, Russia, and South Korea have all deteriorated. Koizumi appears to thrive in a peculiar realm of Japanese politics where gestures and symbols substitute for policy substance, and so he worsened relations with China by stubbornly repeating his visits to that relic of State Shintoism, the Yasukuni shrine. His “great victory” of last Sunday is likely to confirm the valor of steadfastness to himself, which is a good reason for Japan’s political players to be alert to new surprise actions that will not help Japan one bit. Those players, also inside the LDP, will help themselves and their country by keeping in mind that this victory was the result of a trick that worked because it came entirely unexpected; a sign of how...

...on political and economic -they should always be seen as parts of the same thing – events as they evolve and connect those with earlier writing of myself and the writing of others. A lot of the time I will just be thinking out loud. I will, in a rather wandering way, follow the unfolding of events in areas that interest me, with jottings under the customary dateline, and link subjects that come up with relevant bits and pieces in earlier writing with which I will gradually fill up the reservoir. There are a number of themes that I intend to come back to again and again, when I think they are relevant to the questions and dilemmas of twentyfirst century existence. My focus is on American developments and what these mean for the world. And on the vicissitudes of European integration, especially in the context of how a Europe with a voice could play a beneficent role in the world. I am very interested in the institution of the citizen, and in which manner citizenship remains possible on the supranational level of the European Union. The subjects will of course grow in number, and can be found in a...