Tatia Lemondzhava, Foreign Policy
Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s upstart president, offers Vladimir Putin a master class in the art of passive aggression.
Terry Glavin, National Post
Set aside the fact that Iran’s elected bodies are subservient under Iran’s constitution to the unelected Guardian Council and the supreme leader. Also set aside the fact that at least half the candidates for the 290-seat parliament and about 600 of the 800 candidates for the assembly of ayatollahs who advise the big boss, Supreme Leader Ali Khameinei, were disqualified for being insufficiently Islamist.
Dilip Simeon, Quartz
Apologists for the status quo ask us to stop talking about caste-based discriminationas if it will go away by pretending it does not exist.
Chris Caldwell, Weekly Standard
France has been cut in two by the globalization of its economy. The urban upper classes of Paris and a couple of other cities (aeronautical Toulouse, for instance, or bohemian Montpellier) have never been better off. They are in like Flynn. But the benefits have been poorly spread. The middle class is shrinking. The gap between rich and poor is growing. Thus far the analysis is conventional. But Guilluy changes it all by asking a bold question: Why would you expect Paris to have a middle class?
Jean-Marie Guehenno, The Guardian
As suicide bombings rock Ankara, it’s clear Turkey is being dragged down by multiple crises. Its friends in the west must intervene.
Gartenstein-Ross & Barr, War on the Rocks
Judging from the Islamic State’s propaganda, it would appear the group is rapidly overtaking the Muslim world. The Islamic State has declared wilayats (provinces) in ten countries spanning from Nigeria to the Caucasus region. It has executed high-profile attacks in several otherwise stable countries, including Tunisia, Turkey, Kuwait, France, and the United States. The group has championed its victories and downplayed its defeats at every turn, portraying... Читать дальше...
Declan Walsh, NYT
The popular memory of King Idris, who died in Cairo in 1983, has quietly endured in Libya. And now, after Colonel Qaddafi’s own fall and the years of violent turmoil that have followed, the country’s closet royalists have emerged with a radical suggestion: Restore a form of monarchy, at least temporarily, to let Libyans rally behind a respected father figure and begin to rebuild their splintered nation.
David Ignatius, Wash Post
However the next months unfold, 2016 will shape the options for the next president. The departing Obama, who hoped to change the strategic balance in the Middle East, has partly done that — encouraging others to take a larger military role, for better or worse, but preserving U.S. diplomacy.
Ben Caspit, Al-Monitor
Ever since the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt almost 37 years ago, Israel and Egypt have been fostering security ties, but it is the Sisi regime that brings these ties to a new, unprecedented level.
Maia de la Baume, Politico EU
The European Commission, which employs 1,000 U.K. nationals across its various departments, according to official figures, has said publicly it has no “Plan B” if an Out vote wins on June 23. “We are staying away from this discussion,” a Commission official said.
Hugh Linehan, Irish Times
You would have to peer very hard to see a trend of any consequence in these numbers. For the “seismic shift” argument to have any credibility, therefore, you have to accept the proposition that the 7 per cent increase in the Fianna Fil vote, as well as the 10.5 per cent slump in support for Fine Gael, represents, as one analyst wrote yesterday, a significant shift in the political value base of voters.
Judy Dempsey, Carnegie Europe
When Chancellor Angela Merkel announced in fall 2015 that Germany would adopt an open-door policy toward refugees fleeing the war in Syria, she didn't inform her Christian Democratic Union party or her coalition partners. Nor did she inform the European Commission, the EU's executive, or her neighbors-except her Austrian counterpart, Chancellor Werner Faymann.
Samuel Bendett, RealClearWorld
Russian political commentator Ilya Konstantivov, writing in the Svobodnaya Pressa (Free Press), took a more personal look at the support Russian people give to Putin, and how the attitude points back to the days of President Boris Yeltsin, the man who nominated Putin to the nation's highest post on Dec. 31, 1999.
Mark Fleming-Williams, Stratfor
The European project was always bound to fail.
Yuriko Koike, PS
Many of the owners of Japan’s 11,000 pachinko halls are from the Korean Peninsula, and some with relations to North Korea have sent substantial sums of money back home for many years. Such “contributors” to the wellbeing of the North Korean economy are recognized by the regime in Pyongyang according to the extent of their support, and are given awards and sometimes publicly recognized as patriots. And on national days, such as the birthday of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung... Читать дальше...
M. Trudolyubov, Wilson Center
The ceasefire agreement is a major test for all parties involved. But primarily it is a test of Russia’s and the U.S.’ ability to rein in the forces they purport to control. The design of the deal is very Russian in the sense that it reflects a belief held by many in the Kremlin that great powers hold sway over smaller countries; or at least should be able to take the command post when it comes to war and peace.
Brookings Institution
Ted Piccone: Terrorism is an issue that can be manipulated to go after your enemies. We need to come to terms with how democracies, in general, respond to terrorism.
Anne Quito, Quartz
If you want to travel the world, it pays to be German. This comes courtesy of a new survey that ranks countries around the world on the amount of “travel freedom” accorded to their citizens. Travel freedom is defined as the number of countries where citizens can travel to without needing a visa, or where they will receive a visa upon arrival.
Rajan Menon, Foreign Affairs
Well before Putin and Medvedev, it was the government of Boris Yeltsin, a leader now lionized as a democrat by some dispirited Western observers of Russia, that lambasted NATO’s eastward expansion. Andrei Kozyrev, Yeltsin’s first foreign minister, who held the post until 1996, was hailed for his statements about Russia seeking “to join the democratic community of nations with a market economy.” But it was the same Kozyrev who warned as early as 1992 that NATO’s enlargement... Читать дальше...
Economist
It is a coup for Mauricio Macri, Argentina’s recently elected president, and will end the country’s long isolation from the international credit markets. Together with other steps Mr Macri has taken since assuming office in December, including ending exchange controls and removing taxes on exports, the credit deal helps restore normality to an economy that had been distorted by populist controls during 12 years of rule by his two Peronist predecessors, Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner and her late husband, Nstor Kirchner.
Carles Puigdemont, Guardian
This is an unprecedented political moment. Addressing the situation in Catalonia is the only available way to avoid instability in Spain for 2016. If the main Spanish political parties continue to duck the issue, they will be forced into new elections in June, and the best-case scenario would be a new government by September. Yet there is little likelihood of a more decisive result second time around – all the polls point to a similar outcome.
Philip Johnston, Telegraph
Prof Richard Rose of the University of Strathclyde recently crunched the numbers and found that Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish voters will contribute about 11 per cent of the pro-EU vote. “English voters would only have to add another 40 per cent to the UK total to create an absolute majority keeping the UK in Europe. But that would mean most English voters had endorsed leaving the European Union – only to have their wishes overriden by the other UK nations.”
Ali Watkins, BuzzFeed
WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden wanted the majority of his million fortune spent in the pursuit of jihad “for the sake of Allah,” according to a copy of his will released Tuesday morning.
Therese Raphael, Bloomberg View
Expat Man cannot be wooed with the same stump lines that appeal to voters back home. In some ways, he will find more common ground across the political aisle than with party confederates in the U.S. Both parties are vying for his vote and his fundraising dollar. But neither has quite grasped how to appeal to the expat voter.
Nadette de Visser, Daily Beast
Conflicting reports coming out of Syria reflect dissension in ISIS ranks. But how bad is it, really?
