Free Republic

Summary: Global power shifts happen rarely and are even less often peaceful. Washington must take heed: Asia is rising fast, with its growing economic power translating into political and military strength. The West must adapt -- or be left behind. James F. Hoge, Jr. is Editor of Foreign Affairs. This article is adapted from a lecture given in April at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. The transfer of power from West to East is gathering pace and soon will dramatically change the context for dealing with international challenges -- as well...

In short: In a review of the outcome of the last two EP elections, the author explores the roots of the political alienation of Europe's voters. European Elections 1999-2004: A Shift in Europe’s Political Cultures ?Most analysis of the latest European elections present the vote predominantly as a snub to incumbents in Member States. However, seen against the background of the political dynamics in Europe since the 1999 European elections, this vote is symptomatic of a more significant change in Europe’s political cultures. Electoral dynamics in Europe at the beginning of the century: a right-wing re-alignment?Within the five years since...

Has political centre in N. America moved right? STEPHEN HANDELMAN Do elections tell us anything significant about national character? Earlier this month two British journalists came to the sobering conclusion that, in the U.S. at least, they do. "Some 41 per cent of American voters identify themselves as conservative," claims John Micklethwaite, U.S. editor of The Economist — a figure he says points to a deeper rightward shift in American culture and politics. Micklethwaite and an Economist colleague, Adrian Wooldridge, have just published a book with the double-entendre title of The Right Nation. At a recent Carnegie Institute panel in...

Despite the best efforts to resurrect the transatlantic bonhomie of the Cold War era, the limitations of any strategic partnership between the United States and Europe are growing increasingly clear. This is not merely a function of fallout over Operation Iraqi Freedom or animosity toward the Bush administration per se. Rather, the split between Europe and the United States reflects a more fundamental clash of strategic cultures. While Americans have historically emphasized preemption, unilateralism, and hegemony in formulating their national security policies, Europeans have preferred balance of power realism. It is time for Washington to recognize that any “partnership” with...

Whatever the precise result on Monday, and whoever forms a government, one thing should by now be clear: The political landscape of Canada is on the verge of historic change -- radical, permanent, and mostly for the better. Eight decades of Liberal dominance, punctuated by occasional Tory interludes, are about to come crashing to an end. This isn't 1984. It isn't 1979. It isn't even 1957. It's something completely new. It's new, in part, because this Tory party is something we haven't seen before. Previous Conservative uprisings have been rooted almost entirely in popular disgust with Liberal excess, and though...

George Bush has had a "devastating impact" on global sustainable development and set the world back more than ten years, says Jonathon Porritt, the prime minister's senior adviser on the subject, today. Writing in Guardian Society Mr Porritt, who is the chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, says it is hard to exaggerate the damage done to the planet by Mr Bush's drive for a "new world order". On a whole series of issues including climate change, international aid, family planning, nuclear proliferation, trade and corporate responsibility, "staying true to a discredited model of extreme economic liberalism has set the...

It's a safe bet that, across the U.S., today's Easter services will be better attended than they have been in years. In fact, even in soft, pampered, easily deluded Canada, the harsh realities that seem to be gradually emerging with the 21st century may have discernible religious consequence . Those realities are being forced on the western world by terrorists, always in the name of Islam. Apart from the 2,800 killed in the attack on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, we were shown in the next 14 or so months -- 118 killed in a Moscow theatre, 180 killed...

ATHENS - It has been more than 50 years since the sophisticated surveillance equipment sitting atop Mount Troodos - the highest point on Cyprus - began scouring the airwaves across the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Tirelessly, the huge dishes and antennas of the secret base have scanned electronic and radio signals, intercepting commercial, diplomatic and military communications wherever the West maintains interests. "In some American facilities in Nicosia - such as the yard of the United States Embassy in Lefkosia and what you might call the agricultural center on the hill - you see some very weird...

One of the most misleading fables about this present struggle is that, since 9/11, we have squandered European good will through arrogance and our "unilateral" operations in Iraq. The controversy over the U.N., the debate about Old and New Europe, the French-German anti-American axis — they are not so much reactions to what we have done as they are expressions of a pre-existing and very unhealthy relationship that was already eroding well before September 11. The envisioned European Union will have more territory, a greater population, and a larger economy than the United States. Their aircraft, automobile, and heavy industries...

In the old days, the headline "Germans Go On Offensive" would have caused palpitations among Czechs, Poles, Belgians, etc. But, in the case of this weekend's AP headline, Germans going on the offensive refers not to sending German troops to foreign countries, but keeping foreign troops in Germany. And it's the Germans having the palpitations, after press reports that the Pentagon plans to pull out half its troops. Right now, Germany plays host to 175,000 Americans — military personnel plus their families — and reducing that number to 80-90,000 would leave a big hole in an economy that's already looking...

WUERZBURG, Germany - As host to 170,000 American soldiers and dependents, Germany has a lot to lose under Pentagon plans to shift forces out of western Europe, and officials in areas facing a pinch are lobbying heavily for them to stay. Economic survival for their communities, more than security, is the concern for these supporters of a continued U.S. presence in their regions, where ties are deeply rooted despite Germans' current criticism of U.S. policy in Iraq. Many of the communities depend on business and jobs generated by the bases, located mainly in economically weak regions of southern and western...

Friends, What Friends? Remember the first time you realized that someone you thought was a close friend became a distant one, or just dropped out of your life altogether? Sometimes you can't pinpoint exactly why a friendship changes, it just does. Sometimes you wake up one day and realize that your core beliefs were so different that the relationship never really was what you thought it was. When you see this old friend on the street you stop for a polite chat, ask about the kids, the job. Or perhaps you’ll meet for lunch every now and then, but it’s...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States could remove as many as half of its 71,000 troops based in Germany and 15,000 troops from Asia in a post-Cold War realignment of U.S. forces abroad, The Washington Post has reported citing U.S. officials. Under the draft plan, smaller bases would be set up in Romania and possibly Bulgaria and training facilities would be set up in Poland, the newspaper reported on Thursday. Bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that were established in 2001 to support the war in Afghanistan would be preserved as training sites and as quick staging areas for use...

While we are all looking under our train seats for suspect packages left by al-Qa'eda operatives, an old Soviet rustbucket of a battle cruiser is being towed home with its 40-year-old nuclear reactor threatening to blow at any moment. What a quaint little memento of past nightmares that is. The atomic-powered ship, Peter the Great, now as decrepit and enfeebled as the Communist dream in whose service it was built, must ferry its fizzing cargo back to dry dock where (presumably) it may be safely dismantled and rendered harmless. Oh, the indignity of it. The once great Soviet armed forces...

That was quite an extraordinary statement yesterday by incoming Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. First, he gave the lie to those wishful Americans who have suggested that Zapatero and his voters wished only to appease jihadi terrorism in Iraq while stoutly resisting jihadi terrorism everywhere else: “Fighting terrorism with bombs, with Tomahawk missiles, isn't the way to beat terrorism, but the way to generate more radicalism.” Well of course there’s nobody, least of all in the Bush administration, who thinks that bombs and Tomahawks alone are right way to fight terrorism. And indeed, if the Bush administration did...

Last Sunday at the Anita M. Stone Center in Flossmoor, a roomful of people attended a lecture on the fence that Israel is building around the West Bank to protect its people from being blown to bloody, fleshy bits by Palestinians with bomb belts. Sagit Kaufman, an endearing, life-loving young woman from the Israeli consulate in Chicago, laid out the facts. The fence is a sensible project that so far has more than 200 entrances. Palestinians will retain all their property rights. In a logical world, the fence would cause no controversy. It would be simply common sense. But this...

Experts foresee US-style security laws BEIRUT: A more unified Europe in line with US anti-terrorism policies could emerge if Al-Qaeda did orchestrate the blasts that caused 198 casualties and over 1,400 wounded in Madrid on Thursday, some analysts predicted. “If it is Al-Qaeda, there will be more European mobilization against terrorism, as viewed by the US,” said Farid al-Khazen, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut. “It will strengthen America’s position on fighting terrorism.” Several European leaders, including British Premier Tony Blair, have said Thursday’s attacks reinforced the need for international cooperation to combat terrorism. “I...

Officials Studying How Best to Adjust Force Posture Overseas By Kathleen T. RhemAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 12, 2004 – Defense officials are examining how best to adjust force posture to meet future threats and hope to come to some conclusions in coming months, a top official looking at the problem said. "We think there are some important changes that ought to be made," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy Andy Hoehn said in an interview about the global posture review. He explained that top officials are now engaged in a deliberate process to make these decisions...

LE MONDE SWITCHES SIDES: An encouragig sign in France. Le Monde's editorial today, "Tragedie Europeenne," ends with the following sentiment: "If she did not know it yet, she knows it now: Europe is part of the battlefield of hyper-terrorism." Then there's this astonishing piece of black-and-white analysis: "Nothing, evidently, no cause, no context, no supposedly political objective, justifies this kind of [large scale] terrorism." Now they tell us. Whatever happened to all those sophisticated European "gray areas"? With any luck, they died in the wreckage of Madrid's trains. Here's another money quote from the French daily: "If the trail back...

A poll conducted in 2002 found that while 61 percent of Americans had hope for the future, only 42 percent of U.K. residents had that hope. When the Gospel went forth from Jerusalem, one of the places it took root was Europe. And Europe became a center of Christian civilization for more than 1,000 years. But there are signs that Europe's Christian era has come to an end. A big deal was made of the fact that the first draft of the new European Union Constitution did not include a single mention of God. But most Europeans act as if...