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COMMENTARY / World

Sep 15, 2008

Europeans draw wrong lesson from Munich

By Ian Buruma

NEW YORK — Seventy years ago this month in Munich, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed a document that allowed Germany to grab a large chunk of Czechoslovakia. The so-called Munich Agreement would come to be seen as an abject betrayal of what Chamberlain termed "a far away country of...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 15, 2008

How EU should engage a born-again power

By Ivan Krastev

SOFIA — The post-Cold War order in Europe is finished, with Vladimir Putin its executioner. Russia's invasion of Georgia only marked its passing. Russia has emerged as a born-again 19th-century power determined to challenge the intellectual, moral and institutional foundations of the order.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 15, 2008

Bailout raises moral issues

By Robert J. Shiller

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The United States government's takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac constitutes a huge bailout of these institutions' creditors, whose losses have ballooned as house prices continue to plummet. With the government now fully guaranteeing Fannie's and Freddie's debts,...

COMMENTARY

Sep 14, 2008

Oily moves to compensate

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — Libya was the diplomatic crossroads of the planet last weekend: Condoleezza Rice made the first visit by a U.S. secretary of State in 55 years (to discuss a murky deal involving payments to American victims of terrorist attacks allegedly sponsored by Libya); radical Bolivian President Evo...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 14, 2008

Nepali 'democracy' unlikely to push peace

By Christopher Lingle and Christina Goldbaum

ATLANTA — Nepal's special assembly has chosen Maoist chief Prachanda as prime minister over Sher Bahadur Deuba, a three-time former prime minister from the Nepali Congress party.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 13, 2008

Mindanao peace process: so near, yet so far

By Julkipli Wadi

The Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that had been given preliminary approval by peace panels of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur on July 27 stands as the only agreement in the annals of the peace process in the Philippines that...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 12, 2008

Water management for the Mekong basin

By Michael Richardson

SINGAPORE — China says it remains a developing country despite its rapid rise in the league of global power. By some measures, it is now the world's third-biggest economy and second-largest exporter. However gauged, China is clearly a nation with increasing impact and influence, especially if you live...

COMMENTARY

Sep 12, 2008

The future of mini-states

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON — Russian recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is a cynical ploy aimed at annoying Georgians and their supporters in the West. If these two enclaves within Georgia deserve to be independent, why has Russia not granted independence to Chechnya or Dagestan?

COMMENTARY

Sep 11, 2008

China's Africa policy changing for the better

By Frank Ching

China refused to allow Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, to take part in the opening session of the Olympic Games, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The paper said Mugabe had traveled to Hong Kong but was then persuaded by China to go home.

COMMENTARY

Sep 11, 2008

Cameron eyes policy shift

By David Howell

David Cameron, the leader of Britain's Conservative opposition, is highly likely to be Britain's next prime minister when the general election comes in 12 to 18 months time. He is in effect the prime minister-in-waiting. His views about the international scene are therefore very important not just to...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 10, 2008

U.S. hedge funds: The sting is in the tail

By H. Peyton Young and Dean P. Foster

PHILADELPHIA — Imagine that you are shopping for a high performance car, but that you are not allowed to look under the hood. What's inside is a secret. Furthermore, you cannot find out how similar vehicles have performed, because there are none. Finally, the car carries no warranty.

COMMENTARY

Sep 10, 2008

Thailand: populism vs. privilege

By Gwynne Dyer

Thaksin Shinawatra is shaping up to be the Juan Peron of Thailand, with the significant difference that he is a rich Peron. The billions he earned in his telecom businesses enabled him to rise to the top of Thai politics — and he used his power to shift wealth and power systematically from the rich...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.

The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo

By Alex K.T. Martin

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