Con Coughlin, Telegraph
It was Turkey’s inept handling of the migrant crisis in the first place than enabled Islamic State (Isil) to infiltrate an estimated 6,000 trained Islamist terrorists into Europe.
James Jeffrey, Foreign Policy
The veep may have poor timing, but when it comes to Iraq, he's the only one in the Obama administration trying to save it.
Zalmay Khalilzad, Politico Magazine
It’s time for some serious dialogue with Iran about Iraq. The chaos in Baghdad, culminating in the temporary occupation of the parliament by followers of Shiite Islamist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is undermining the war against the Islamic State, weakening Iraq’s economy, and accelerating the country’s disintegration. Without cooperation between the United States, Iran and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Sistani, the crisis could very well lead to the collapse... Читать дальше...
Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest
The traditionalist monarchies clearly are doing better than the republics, and though that is partly due to the oil revenues than keep so many of them afloat, it is also due to the superior ability of monarchies to balance traditional power centers.
John Cassidy, The New Yorker
From the Irish Sea to the Carpathian Mountains, right-wing anti-establishment movements are on the rise.
Doyle McManus, LAT
Syria's two wars are very different from each other. A strategy that makes sense in one half of the country may not in the other.
Michael Auslin, National Review
Under Shinzo Abe, Japan is again bidding to become a central player on the world stage. It remains an attractive partner for technology cooperation, and the potential for defense-industrial ties could help the economies of both Japan and Europe. By staking his foreign policy on the maintenance of global order, Abe has created the biggest opportunity for Japanese engagement with Europe since Yasuhiro Nakasone was prime minister in the 1980s. The next U.S. president... Читать дальше...
Peter Wynne Rees, Convo
London has experienced 16 years of elected mayoralty, and soon a third incumbent (or encumbrance) will be elected to this office. So, what are elected mayors good for?
Niall Ferguson, Boston Globe
I am a philo-Semite. The disproportionate Jewish contribution to Western civilization — not least to science and the arts — is one of the most astonishing achievements of modern history. I am also an anti-anti-Semite. The murder and mayhem perpetrated by anti-Semites throughout history, above all in the 20th century, deserves its special place in the annals of infamy.
Peter Morici, Boston Herald
The Obama administration admits the trade deficit is holding back jobs creation and growth and has chided China and others about currency manipulation and other aggressive trade practices, but Americans have a lot of bucking up to do if they are to compete effectively and reverse a ,000 decline in family incomes in this century.
Lili Bayer, Geopolitical Futures
Large-scale protests in Central Asia today are relatively rare. Most of the region’s regimes use a variety of tools, from crackdowns to patronage networks, to prevent potential unrest. Nevertheless, Central Asia is slowly destabilizing. The region is at the crossroads of several interrelated crises. To the north, Russia is experiencing significant financial challenges. To the east, China’s economy is slowing down. In the south, Afghanistan remains highly unstable... Читать дальше...
Fabrice Balanche, Wash. Institute
Aside from President Obama, none of the main players in Syria has an interest in rushing toward Raqqa, so they will likely focus on exploiting the various campaigns around Aleppo instead.
Neukirch & Schult, Der Spiegel
The Israeli prime minister has always been able to depend on Berlin ultimately standing together with Israel and not joining the country's most vocal critics. But many, particularly in the Berlin Foreign Ministry, have begun wondering if Germany sent the wrong signals in the past. An example that is frequently mentioned is Chancellor Merkel's speech in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in 2008 when she said that Israeli security is part of Germany's "raison d'tat."... Читать дальше...
Economist
AT MID-AFTERNOON in Dagupan City, hundreds of people sweat and jostle politely in an arena awaiting Grace Poe, one of five candidates vying to be elected president of the Philippines on May 9th. When she arrives, the crowd surges to greet her. But during her well-rehearsed stump speech, attention wavers. People shift in their seats. Some leave. Afterwards, some clamour for T-shirts she tosses from a truck, but the overall response seems more dutiful than passionate.
David Chazan, BBC
The struggle against pollution has pitted the mayor against the national government, notably the environment minister, Segolene Royal, who has been more reluctant than the mayor to introduce curbs on drivers, saying she wants to avoid "stigmatising" them.
Benny Avni, New York Post
If you think Hitler was a Zionist, you might be an anti-Semite. If you say “problem solved” if Israel were transferred to mid-America, you might be an anti-Semite.
Janan Ganesh, Financial Times
The 30 per cent that Labour still scores in the polls is historic in its awfulness at this point of the cycle and unrealistically flattering at the same time. Deduct seven points for a truer picture of its destiny in 2020. What feels like a crisis will not fully register in electoral outcomes for years yet, and certainly not on Thursday, when victory in London should cloak failures elsewhere and give Mr Corbyn his told-you-so moment. The sun has not even dawned yet on Labour’s landscape of desolation.
Agata Gostyska-Jakubowska, CER
The UK could not easily decide that it had made a mistake and rejoin the EU on the same terms that it now enjoys. Anyone who thinks that the UK could always reverse course is misled or misleading others. Article 50.5 indeed says that a member-state that has withdrawn from the European Union can apply for membership again – but only on the same basis as any other applicant.
Jamie Reed, Progress
The party statement announcing the suspension of Naz read: ‘Jeremy Corbyn and Naz Shah have mutually agreed that she is administratively suspended from the Labour Party by the general secretary.’ I have never encountered any situation whereby an individual negotiates their own suspension with their party leader only for that suspension to then be attributed to somebody else. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Nigel Lawson, Telegraph
To be part of a political project whose objective we emphatically do not share cannot possibly make sense. It is true that our present Prime Minister argues that he has secured a British “opt-out” from the political union, but this is completely meaningless.
Z. Cooper & J. Douglas, WOTR
Only one hypothesis seems to connect all these dots — and it makes the administration’s actions look coherent and strategic. A close reading of public statements suggests that earlier this year U.S. officials became aware of a potential Chinese plan to conduct reclamation at Scarborough Shoal. Around this time, press reports noted that Admiral Harris traveled to Washington for Scarborough-related discussions with other senior U.S. national security leaders, where... Читать дальше...
Patrick Iber, New Republic
When conflict broke out in Spain, leftists from around the world were motivated to join. With Hitler and Mussolini supporting Franco, those with deep anti-fascist convictions, especially Communists, were drawn to defend the Republic, and even to fight. “For us it wasn’t Franco,” said one New Yorker quoted by Hochschild, “it was always Hitler.”
Burgman & Friedle, TNI
To foreigners, mainland China can be an anarchistic and chaotic place where the rules, both social and legal, are treated more-or-less like paternal suggestions rather than codes of conduct. One of the most glaring examples of the complete disregard for rules among the Chinese populace is driving. Despite the Road Traffic Safety Laws of the People’s Republic of China being as robust and comprehensive as any developed country, it is not uncommon to see Chinese drivers blatantly... Читать дальше...
Josh Cohen, Foreign Policy
Although events of 75 years ago may seem like settled history, they are very much a part of the information war raging between Russia and Ukraine.
Clive Crook, Bloomberg View
Brexit is fraught with risk, and voters are likely to make the safer choice. But because they'll do so reluctantly, Britain's EU partners should expect the U.K. to be an even bigger nuisance in future.
