First EU President Named

Big news for the European Union—a new president named from Belgium:

There were weeks of complex back-and-forth, but the heads of the 27 EU nations settled quickly on Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton over dinner here Thursday after British prime minister Tony Blair — hoping for a political resurrection — lost the backing of his government.

Mr. Blair’s withdrawal “made it easy” for the others to settle on Mr. Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton, said Mr. Van Rompuy’s spokesman.

The choices of two politicians largely unknown outside their home countries suggest the long-held ambitions of some to give the bloc a bigger presence on the world stage had been scaled back.

But creating the two top jobs indicated that the EU was badly seeking coherence as it wrestled with thorny domestic and foreign policy questions — its relationship with Russia, for instance — that often divided its members.

via Belgian Premier Van Rompuy Named First EU President – WSJ.com.

Geneva Journal – Genevans, Some at Least, Celebrate Calvin’s 500th – NYTimes.com

A bit of a contrast for a sleepy city–home to the League of Nations and UN’s Palais–where tolerance got a nice start a few hundred years ago:

Yet some Genevans, he added, see similarities between Calvin’s time and events today. After Calvin arrived in Geneva, thousands of French Protestants, called Huguenots, followed him, fleeing persecution and often death in Catholic France; they were resented by the local population.

Today, there is a heated debate about thousands of French workers, known as “border crossers,” who live in France but work in Geneva. This migration has fueled a right-wing political party that wants to stop it, arguing that the French steal Swiss jobs. “Calvin led the party of border-crossers,” Mr. de Montmollin said.

To overcome the hesitance about celebrating Calvin’s birth and to reach a broad audience, festival organizers have sought to treat Calvin in a lighter vein. The poster for a theater piece, “The Deceits of Calvin,” features a cartoon figure of Calvin holding two cats by their tails in his extended hands. The play is about Calvin’s wife, Idelette de Bure, who brought two children into the marriage, her second, while Calvin brought his cats.

via NYT.

Berlin Comes Back Together–20 Years Ago

We commemorated a major Cold War event last week with the Berlin Seminar at BYU.  Fred Kaplan explains why Berlin mattered.   Meanwhile, please share your favorite insight from the 20 year anniversary across the punditsphere or news:

The fall of the Berlin Wall did destroy borders between countries, at least physically. Millions of people who had been raised in communist Eastern Europe had for the first time in their lives the possibility to see the West. But the idea of borders, mental or physical, across Europe, was not eradicated.“The West had preoccupied our imagination for so long,” said Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia. “We had talked about destroying the borders. It was about the physical act of crossing. No constraints.”

via Barriers May Crumble, but Psychological Borders Remain – Special Report – NYTimes.com.

And more:

• Travel update from TimeOut Berlin
• Newseum interactive site
• A comparison of images and text by NYT
• How the wall coming down was a big misunderstanding

   

  

   

  via Slate

Diplomatic Memo – Europe Still Likes Obama, but Doubts Creep In – NYTimes.com

We have come a long way, baby, when French President Sarko says the following:

“I support America’s outstretched hand. But what has the international community gained from these offers of dialogue? Nothing but more enriched uranium and centrifuges.”

via Diplomatic Memo – Europe Still Likes Obama, but Doubts Creep In – NYTimes.com.

Whether its the right direction–that is another matter up to political debate.  As the previous post on Sec State Clinton shows, doubts are growing about the limits/wisdom of the much discussed ‘dialogue’ approach.

Rightist on BBC Panel Draws Protests and Viewers – NYTimes.com

How far is too far for freedom of speech?  The uproar across the pond is more than a huff—but raises interesting questions about the limits of political discourse and whether the Beeb did well by promoting a wide range of views:

The occasion was the appearance on “Question Time,” the BBC’s flagship politics program, of Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, whose goal to “take back Britain” includes incentives that encourage the mass repatriation of Britain’s nonwhite immigrants, coupled with a deep hostility to Islam, which Mr. Griffin has described as “a wicked and vicious faith.” He has also spoken of his “repugnance” for lesbians and gays, and advocated the end of civil contracts for same-sex relationships.

His record includes having denied the Holocaust, suggesting that some of the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau were built after World War II for the purposes of Jewish propaganda, and conceding, under questioning by a biographer, that Hitler may have made some mistakes. “Yes,” he said, according to the biographer, Dominic Carman, “Adolf went a bit too far.”

via Rightist on BBC Panel Draws Protests and Viewers – NYTimes.com.

Over in the Colonies, a great visualization of the FDR’s Four Freedoms–which were a key concept in the founding of international organizations.

In “Freedom of Speech,” however, Rockwell found a subject that is active and public, a subject he could grasp and shape into his greatest painting forging traditional American illustration into a powerful and enduring work of art.

Clinton Urges Hewing to Peace Process in Northern Ireland – NYTimes.com

In case you thought everything in Northern Ireland was resolved, Sec State Clinton raises concerns over her “family project” of peace:

I know the divisions within Northern Ireland are not fully healed,” Mrs. Clinton said, citing Belfast’s still-segregated neighborhoods. “But given time, and given the leadership that each of you can provide, the torn fabric of society will be woven together, stitch by stitch, choice by choice.”

Northern Ireland, she said, serves as a model for peacemaking everywhere in the world, and indeed, George J. Mitchell, now the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy, helped broker the Good Friday Agreement.

Some of those gains, however, are now at risk. The standoff between Catholic and Protestant leaders over transferring authority over the police and the courts to Belfast from London — which is partly about money and partly about politics — could stall the process of devolving power to Northern Ireland.

via Clinton Urges Hewing to Peace Process in Northern Ireland – NYTimes.com.

Country Study | Germany Unbound – NYTimes.com

How to think about Germany, post-election and in this post Cold War era from the NYT/IHT global op-ed voice, Roger Cohen:

This Germany is more nationalistic, more evenly poised between Washington and Moscow, cool to the point of disinterest about the European Union, self-absorbed and self-satisfied, dutiful but unenthused about the NATO alliance.

He also observes the impact of missteps in the recent past:

Germans think America made a mistake by humiliating Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They draw a parallel, inevitably, with Weimar. They also think it was not force — America’s — that won the Cold War but détente — Germany’s.

“Don’t expect too much from Russia,” Karsten Voigt, who has long watched over German-American relations at the Foreign Ministry, said. “Maybe a little help on Iran, but they will continue to view their interests as broadly ant

via Op-Ed Columnist – Germany Unbound – NYTimes.com.

German Elections = More Intersting than Glee

I promise, you really ought to follow the elections in Germany.  As Foreign Policy magazine notes, they promise to be really interesting with 40% of the voters undecided.  To boot:

Germany’s political system is suffering from a combination of complacency and fear. Urgently needed economic reforms have languished. And notes of ambiguity are creeping into Berlin’s hitherto ultra-predictable foreign policy.

Still not convinced?  Who wouldn’t love to learn about a young economic minister with charisma, a pedigreed lineage, and an AC/DC t-shirt (you have to read the story) he’s proud to flaunt when mixing tunes in the Berlin club-world underground.  He also is good at connecting and could be a sign of the future.   (Ok, he’s not running, but it is a one-two connection to round our your reading on this part of the world.)

While Europe Sleeps, Bosnia Seethes – NYTimes.com

All is not well in Bosnia:

[In May] Mr. Biden barnstormed through the Balkans on Air Force 2, also stopping in Serbia and Kosovo, with the goal of trying to draw flagging attention back to the region, delivering his sternest lecture to the Bosnian Parliament, warning against falling back onto “old patterns and ancient animosities.”

Mr. Biden is not alone in his warnings. In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, under the headline “The Death of Dayton,” Patrice C. McMahon and Jon Western write that because of ethnic divisions that refuse to heal, widespread corruption and political deadlock, “the country now stands on the brink of collapse” and “unless checked, the current trends toward fragmentation will almost certainly lead to a resumption of violence.”

Whether or not that happens, the peacekeeping force meant to crack down on any outbreaks now has fewer than 2,000 troops. And the American contingent, a promise and a deterrent to those who justifiably doubt the European Union’s resolve if force is needed, has left entirely.

via While Europe Sleeps, Bosnia Seethes – NYTimes.com.

Washington Aims to Shuffle IMF Seats – WSJ.com

What role does or should the G-20 play in world affairs?  Many see it as a bloc of convenience, and yet it seems to exist in a parallel to other multilateral bodies such as the UN or NATO.

New approaches involving the G-20 are brewing to reshape the 50+ year old IMF, a body created in a different world from today:

“The changes will take a lot of bargaining,” said a G-20 official from a large developing country. “But we are in a bargaining mood.”

The U.S. is pushing two proposals. Under the first, the number of seats on the IMF board would fall to 20 from 24 by 2012, with developing countries that already have chairs retaining them. The U.S. doesn’t name countries that should give up seats but it is clear some would be European.

The second U.S. proposal would essentially shift five percentage points of ownership of the IMF from traditional industrialized countries to developing countries. Currently, industrialized countries have about a 60% ownership stake.

Under this proposal, Europe also would lose clout. The U.S. and Europe have roughly the same size economy, but Europe has twice the ownership shares of the U.S., says Edwin Truman, who worked in the Clinton and Obama Treasury Departments and is now at the Peterson Institute of International Economics.

via Washington Aims to Shuffle IMF Seats – WSJ.com.