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As the Beijing Olympics approach their end, it’s perhaps time to look forward to 2012, when London will host the Games. With error-prone Mayor Boris Johnson–see below–in charge, we can be confident that Britain will fail to match the “flawless execution” of the PRC’s sportfest. But at least it won’t be as creepy.
(Please ignore the [...]
Filed under: World
Filed under: Foreign policy, World
In Sunday’s NYT books section, Bill Keller wrote glowing review of John Carlin’s Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation. The book, Keller informed his readers, is about how Mandela used rugby, a sport that was once the very symbol of apartheid, to heal his country’s racial divisions. “There [...]
Al-Qa’eda has lost credibility for enforcing a series of rules imposing their way of thought on the most mundane aspects of everyday life. They include a ban on women buying suggestively-shaped vegetables, according to one tribal leader in the western province of Anbar. Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes, a Sunni elder, told Reuters: ‘… They regarded the [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized, World
Putin, almost everyone agrees, has pulled off a brutal strategic masterstroke in the Caucasus, calling the West’s bluff and humiliating Georgia’s unlovable president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Meanwhile, though, Russia’s performance in the Olympics has been surprisingly poor. The Russians currently languish in eighth position in the medal rankings, with only three golds. It’s not important of [...]
Filed under: World
“Let the Games Begin,” orders a thumping editorial in today’s London Times. It’s time to put aside complaints about human rights and enjoy the lavish sporting feast that Beijing is putting on. The article even praises Beijing for showing “restraint” in response to Western critics.
There is no disguising Chinese irritation, however, at what many see [...]
Filed under: World
Rwanda yesterday accused France of complicity– even active involvement– in the genocide of 1994. This is a long-standing allegation, now apparently given formal weight by the findings of an independent Rwandan commission.
In the report, President Francois Mitterrand (now dead of course), former prime minister Edouard Balladur, and two men who went on to become [...]
Filed under: World
David Brooks is in tip-top form today. Ah, remember those days when we ran the world? Is it all over?
… in the late 1940s, global power was concentrated. The victory over fascism meant the mantle of global leadership rested firmly on the Atlantic alliance. The United States accounted for roughly half of world economic output. [...]
Filed under: World
Andrew Bacevich, a contributing editor at TAC, testified before a House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations yesterday. The themes in his remarks are ones he addresses more thoroughly in his forthcoming book, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, which we heartily recommend. His testimony is reproduced below:
Thank you for [...]
Filed under: Economics, Foreign policy, Iraq, War, World
From the Telegraph:
The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.
Good to [...]
Filed under: World