Your correspondent was quick to agree with The Economist's assessment that this financial crisis could bring the EU closer together, rather than break it up.

Some highlights from this Bloomberg report illustrate this:

"German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said euro-region countries may be forced to…

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This is the response I posted to The Economist's monthly debate: "This House believes that Brand America will regain its shine."

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Dear Sir, America's economic shine has long been the work of immigrants at every level of the production chain. Recall that US Steel was founded and run by Carnegie, the s…

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Happy belated birthday to Charles Darwin, and happy belated bicentennial! Two hundred years ago, Charles Darwin wrote a less famous treatise on morality titled The Moral Sense of Man.

Most striking to me, from a political standpoint, are these lines: "As man advances in civilization, and small tribes…

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"The bigger blow to Mr Obama comes not so much from the failure of a project that was never, given the nature of politics, really viable. It is that the latest episode contributes to a surprising picture of incompetence that is building up around his presidency. This is the third of…

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I recently analyzed Mr Obama's inaugural address for some clues as to his foreign policy approach for the next four years. That will be flexible as he moves through his term. I have spoken to critics of my last post who claim that I may be overanalyzing soaring rhetoric. I may…

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Some foreign policy thoughts from key sections of Mr Obama's inaugural speech:

""Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy ALLIANCES and ENDURING CONVICTIONS. They understood that our POWER ALONE CANNOT protect us, nor does it en…

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Your correspondent wrote on the date of Barack Obama's election victory that his electoral success was a landmine buried beneath a landmark. Mr Obama's victory is not the culmination of the civil rights movement, but it is a very important landmark: it marks the time America accepted a non-white man…

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I met and spoke with a diplomat assigned to the US mission to NATO in Brussels tonight and, amongst other things, he discussed how careful he had to be when answering questions in other countries and at home. "I have to distinguish between my two hats. When speaking as an American…

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What consistently frustrates your correspondent is the presence of the Taiwanese flag among the flag of nations in my school's dining hall, and the representation of that same flag whenever we parade national flags. I would not protest if the flag were the Chinese-Taipei flag that is internationally…

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Some highlights from the SecState to be:

"Clinton, 61, intended to emphasize areas of foreign policy in which she and Obama think alike, including their conviction that in order to make gains abroad the United States needs to strengthen its domestic economy, the official said."

"Borrowing a phrase mean…

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The Atlantic's views on the Office of the Presidency:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/founders-mistake

"After a transformative midterm election like that of 1994 or 2006, the nation should require a compromise between the rejected president and the new Congress. A president whose party has lost s…

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Sitting in a bistro today, I listened to two couples next to me argue about Israel's actions in Gaza and the role the US ought to play in that conflict.

One of the women spoke at length about isolating the extremists in Palestine and the rest of the Arab world by seeking…

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Apologies for the long break: college applications and all that.

This is from the Economist:

"To counter that view, Israel must show not only that it is too strong to be swept away but also that it is willing to give up the land—the West Bank, not just Gaza—where the promised Palestinian state…

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My European History class discussed Machiavellian foreign policy. Your correspondent disagrees particularly with one assessment: that the Arab sympathy for the plight of the Jews is of any consequence.

It isn't. For the Arab states, Israel is a projection of American power into the Middle-East. The po…

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Although tackling the green movement has been accused of siphoning large amounts of global GDP, this blog would like to point out some of the positive externalities. Below is an edited version of my comment on a blog from The Economist:


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This is a comment to the Economist's World in 2009 blog…

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In The Economist's World in 2009 interview with the chief of the NAACP Mr Benjamin Todd Jealous, Mr Todd says,

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"Barack Obama's very image sends a very powerful signal, not just about what's possible, but also about the changes that are needed in how our society operates and at the end of…

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Shakespeare's Hamlet outlines, to me, the playwright's idea of a strong nation-state. Hamlet's realization that strong institutions, not strong men, will hold a strong state together takes place in Act IV, Scene II:

“The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing."…

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The Economist believes that America's planned withdrawal from Iraq is neither a complete victory nor a complete defeat. Iraq's current state deserves neither moniker. The anticlimactic withdrawal (overshadowed, frankly, by the Economic Question) is much like Obama's victory: it is a landmark, nothing…

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This blog has determinedly called for the American government to take "bold, persistent experimentation" in the FDR tradition in its approach to dealing with the financial crisis. Your correspondent has not and will not presume to recommend any courses of action. I pointed out several different possi…

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Ex-SecState Henry Kissinger wrote in Diplomacy that (I don't have the book with me, so I can't quote) balances of power forged solely around the concept of interest and power are doomed to fail; a successful equilibrium must incorporate common values. Nineteenth century Europe, Mr Kissinger argued,…

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You can't have your cake and eat it Ms Pelosi:

NYT:

"Ms. Pelosi said at a news conference that she and her colleagues want the car companies to “demonstrate that they can survive in the marketplace,†and ideally thrive once again."

I will have more reactions on this blog later but right now I'm…

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Free Exchange noted in its entry "The changing face of self-interest", that the threats that face nation-states are increasingly coming from sources that have no affiliation with any nation. Your correspondent pointed out terrorists and global warming as an example.

America's National Intelligence Cou…

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