Global Viewpoint
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The G20 must get serious or risk irrelevance – and a second recession
The G20 has failed to follow through on its coordinated reform agenda. In Cannes this November, G20 leaders must empower a truly independent International Monetary Fund to require real financial reforms – for all nations, regardless of their relationship with the IMF.
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A new global political order
For the first time in human history, the entire world is now politically awakened. Democratic participation and global cooperation are the best guarantees of social progress and stability. The world must take concrete steps in this direction.
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Blair, Delors, Schroeder: Europe's union is the solution, not the problem
Europe is at a crossroads. Our preoccupation with the fiscal crisis comes at the expense of the broader EU agenda. We must unite to engage citizens and address the pressing issues of foreign policy, energy, immigration, growth and employment, and other ignored priorities.
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China's opposition: redder than the Communist Party itself
Opposition to the Chinese Communist Party’s rule is actually coming from the left, with cries that the party has forgotten the masses and coddled the elite. Can the party co-opt this nationalist fervor to remake itself – and all of political science?
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Economic future for Libya brighter than in Tunisia, Egypt
Libya has immense petroleum wealth, a small population, and an ability to attract foreign investment. But the international community must see that Libya's interim Transitional National Council follows its 'road map' to an accountable and transparent new government.
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Gordon Brown: Germany must drop blame game and save the euro
Germany has blamed others for the global financial crisis, but German loans funded much of the reckless spending. It must now agree to a common mechanism for Europe to pay its way out of crises. Refusing this responsibility endangers Germany and the entire euro project.
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Regime change in Syria and Iran will come only if people unite as in Libya
The citizenry in Iran and Syria must take up their own collective responsibility and shake off fear to depose their dictators, as the people did in Libya. Democracy promotion from outside simply isn't practical or effective.
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S&P has no business downgrading US bond rating
When and how America brings down its debt shouldn't matter to Standard & Poor’s. The ratings agency wasn't doing its job in 2008, when it gave Wall Street's riskiest securities a AAA rating, and it's not doing its job now by hurting the US economy with an unnecessary downgrade.
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West must support democracy in Arab world as it did in Central Europe
Western leaders must support democracy in the Arab world now in 2011 as they did in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. The time for viewing dictatorships as defenders of Western civilization is finished.
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Gordon Brown: History will charge Europe's leaders with West's decline
Europe doesn't just have a debt problem. It has a banking and growth problem. And leaders must recognize this as not just a Greek or Irish emergency, but a European crisis that needs cooperative, comprehensive solutions.
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China should listen to Kissinger: You're on top now, start leading
China has surpassed the US as the world's largest creditor. Beijing must now take on the accompanying leadership role. Instead of a 'Marshall Plan,' why not a 'Hu Jintao plan' that recycles some of China's surplus to benefit the whole global system?
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Obama’s Afghanistan withdrawal: another sign of America's decline?
To the Taliban – and much of the world – the withdrawal is a sign of US weakness. The short-term benefits of abandoning counterinsurgency in Afghanistan may be politically appealing. But the long-term costs may be greater than Obama anticipates.
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Another revolution afoot in Egypt: top-notch science
Egypt has launched a national project akin to the Aswan Dam. It's called the City of Science and Technology – part Caltech, part Max Planck Institutes in Germany, part Tech Park in Turkey. Investment in education is the best way to cure fanaticism.
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PIMCO CEO: Egypt needs stronger outside support
Egypt can deliver on its revolution. But building a new society also requires better and stronger support from its friends and allies.
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Greek debt crisis is a European problem – with a political solution
If Greece goes bankrupt, what lies ahead is an economic and political crisis worse than that of 2008. Solutions exist. Europe is in dire need of the political courage to implement them.
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Iran's Green Movement has actually achieved its goal
Where does Iran’s opposition stand two years later? The price of speaking out has been high. Even so, the movement has achieved its goal by gaining moral high ground, revealing the true face of the Islamic regime, and draining away much of its political legitimacy.
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Francis Fukuyama: Democracy still rules. But will US catch up in a changing world?
Political scientist Francis Fukuyama discusses the crumbling European Union, what the West should learn from China, and the power of – and problems with – democracy.
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US should support Arab Spring, not Saudi Arabia's dangerous reaction
Saudi Arabia is peddling the message of sectarian division, but that’s a dangerously inaccurate misreading of the what the Arab Spring is really about. If the US wants stability in the Middle East, it shouldn’t bow to Saudi Arabia’s opposition to Shiite Iran.
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IMF's next leader: Don't rush this choice
The quality and openness of the selection process for a new International Monetary Fund leader matters as much as the outcome. It will be key not only to the future legitimacy of that institution but to the very notion of cooperative global economic management.
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Ehud Barak: Netanyahu must take 'daring’ steps toward peace
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak discusses Netanyahu's US trip, Israel's need to make a bold peace proposal, and whether Israel can work with the newly unified Palestinian Authority.
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