New posting of Ivan Krastev in the blog of Word Affairs:
The critique of Obama always has been that he is soft. He smiles to the Russians, bows to the Japanese, agrees with the Chinese, and even wants to talk to the Iranians. Many Republicans started asking themselves: Is something wrong with the President, does he know that international politics is not a global cocktail party? And suddenly Obama “toughened.” He played tough in winning his health care reform, and then he played tough against Israel after the humiliation of Vice President Joe Biden’s response to the Israeli government’s housing development in East Jerusalem.
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The older postings of Ivan Krastev you can find here.
Postings of other participants in the blog you can find here.
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New posting of Ivan Krastev in the blog of Word Affairs:
The second Russia-Georgia war that President Saakashvili lost lasted only 30 minutes and allegedly took only two victims (both died of heart attacks). What was destroyed this time was not Georgia’s infrastructure, but the political credibility of its government.
The facts on the ground are not contested. On March 13, the staunchly pro-government Imedi television channel aired a fake news report claiming that Russian tanks had crossed into Georgia and were headed toward Tbilisi. The “report” also said that Saakashvili had been killed and that some opposition leaders—including former parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze and former Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli—had betrayed their country and sided with Moscow.
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The older postings of Ivan Krastev you can find here.
Postings of other participants in the blog you can find here.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Български.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Български.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Български.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Български.
New posting of Ivan Krastev in the blog of Word Affairs:
Venus is from Europe
“Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace,” wrote Thomas Paine some two centuries ago. Since then, many things have changed but not America’s skepticism about Europe. Speaking at the National Defense University some weeks ago, Secretary Gatesexpressed his fear that “demilitarization of Europe—where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks going with it—has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st.” In short, Europe is planted with too many pacifist democracies to be long enough at war. What does all this mean for the future of NATO?
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The older postings of Ivan Krastev you can find here.
Postings of other participants in the blog you can find here.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Български.
New posting of Ivan Krastev in the blog of Word Affairs:
Let’s face it, if Greece were a Central European country, the Greek crisis would never have happened. First, Germany and France were never going to allow a country known for its poor economic performance, bad political manners and genius for creative accounting to join the single currency union. Secondly, if by luck or negligence the Greece of Central Europe had ended up in the euro zone, Brussels was going to thoroughly scrutinize Athens’s finances. But Greece is not a Central European country. While the European Commission was crusading against corruption in the Yalta Club countries, the Club Med countries enjoyed the privilege of being treated as good Europeans without actually being good Europeans. Imagine that Bulgaria’s or Romanian’s prime minister controls 80 percent of the national media and is in the habit of spending his holidays entertaining prostitutes. Or imagine that the Hungarian prime minister—contrary to all advice coming from Brussels—declares that he will not freeze public sector wages, despite the severe economic crisis. It is difficult even to imagine the outcry that would follow. But what outrages Brussels in Sofia or Budapest simply worries it in Rome or Madrid.
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The older postings of Ivan Krastev you can find here.
Postings of other participants in the blog you can find here.
