MADRID – Once upon a time, despots simply acted like despots. Nowadays, they dress up their dictatorships in the trappings of the rule of la…

MADRID – This month, an independent review panel is expected to release its findings regarding the World Bank’s Doing Business report. Specu…

MADRID – Economic globalization, together with a rebalancing of power between the world’s north and south, has made developing countries, an…

MADRID – Now that the dust has settled on President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated trip to Israel, it is possible to analyze the significan…

MADRID – US President Barack Obama’s announcement that negotiations will begin on a comprehensive “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partne…

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama began his second term as US President with an inaugural address that presented a broad vision of American governme…

MADRID – The start of any year invariably prompts stocktaking, and 2012 certainly offers much to consider: the dramatic events in the Middle…

MADRID – On Monday night, the Palestinian Authority submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations General Assembly that, if approved, w…

MADRID – In both Catalonia and Scotland, calls for independence are growing once again – an indication of conditions not only in Spain and t…

MADRID – In a decision criticized and praised in equal measure, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this year’s Peace Prize to the Europea…

BEIJING – On a recent fact-finding trip to China, organized by the European Council on Foreign Relations, I began with the assumption that t…

MADRID – The uproar surrounding Ecuador’s grant of political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has obscured huge inconsistencies. O…

MADRID – July will enter Spanish history as having started on a tremendous high, spurred by Spain’s recent triumph in the 2012 Euro Soccer C…

MADRID – For decades, critics of the European Union have spoken about a democratic deficit. I never accepted that reproach of the EU and its…

MADRID – The triumph of democracy and market-based economics – the “End of History,” as the American political philosopher Francis Fukuyama …

MADRID – Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s decision to renationalize the energy company YPF has raised a virtual tsunami …

MADRID – With three nominees now in the running to become the World Bank’s next president – Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, f…

MADRID – Seen from Europe, the irrationality of the political and media discourse over nuclear energy has, if anything, increased and intens…

MADRID – Robert Zoellick’s announcement that he will not seek reelection as President of the World Bank has focused attention on whether the…

MADRID – One year after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, with popular upheavals continuing to roil the Arab world, it is increasingly clear that E…