http://www.project-syndicate.org The highest quality commentaries and analysis from distinguished voices across the world en 2012-02-10T06:00:30+01:00 webmaster@project-syndicate.org webmaster@project-syndicate.org 1994-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 4 hourly http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/blejer9/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/blejer9/English>ECON WEEKLY: The Eurozone’s Fork in the Road</a> The ECB's recent decision to lend unlimited funds to eurozone commercial banks at very low rates acknowledges the need to address a core drawback in the euro-architecture: the ECB itself. However the banks use the money, it is now clear that the eurozone’s future will be determined largely by the ECB. Mario I. Blejer, Eduardo Levy Yeyati 2012-02-09T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen39/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eichengreen39/English>EICHENGREEN: Europe’s Tobin Tax Distraction</a> European leaders have revealed their top-secret plan for solving the euro’s crisis: a version of the “Tobin tax,” a levy on financial transactions first suggested in 1972. The only problem is that the tax was intended to solve an entirely different problem from those that afflict Europe today. Barry Eichengreen 2012-02-09T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/laidi1/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/laidi1/English>WEEKLY: Obama’s Middle East Malady</a> No sooner did Barack Obama welcome home US troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis. Is that crisis an unfortunate exception, or, rather, a symptom of the failure of Obama’s Middle East diplomacy, from Egypt to Afghanistan? Zaki Laidi 2012-02-08T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/nye103/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/nye103/English>NYE: When Women Lead</a> Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? It is an interesting question, but the key choices about war and peace in our future will depend not on gender, but on how leaders – men and women alike – combine hard- and soft-power skills to produce smart strategies. Joseph S. Nye 2012-02-08T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stsang3/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stsang3/English>CHINA: China’s Syrian Folly</a> In vetoing the UN Security Council’s draft resolution on Syria, China claims that it has acted in the interests of the Syrian people. In fact, the Chinese stance has effectively ensured that atrocities in Syria will continue and increase in intensity – and that China's soft power will diminish throughout the Middle East. Steve Tsang 2012-02-08T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/buruma59/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/buruma59/English>BURUMA: American Funk</a> Many American fearmongers would have us believe that the US is now in a dangerous state of funk – a loss of self-belief that signals the end of its world leadership. But they are wrong to claim that the decline of US military dominance will lead to the collapse of world order. Ian Buruma 2012-02-07T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rudd1/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rudd1/English>ASIA: Tomorrow’s Pax Pacifica</a> Although the relationship between China and the United States is critical to Asia’s future, the concept of a "G-2" is never going to fly in the region. The task today is to recognize the realities of US and Chinese power, without turning the rest of the region into collateral damage should the Sino-American relationship deteriorate. Kevin Rudd 2012-02-07T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz148/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz148/English>STIGLITZ: Capturing the ECB</a> There are several explanations for the ECB’s insistence on a "voluntary" restructuring of Greece's sovereign debt, none of which speaks well for the institution. Indeed, as we have seen elsewhere, institutions that are not democratically accountable tend to be captured by special interests. Joseph E. Stiglitz 2012-02-06T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zuma1/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/zuma1/English>ECON WEEKLY: Seizing Sustainable Development</a> The world is on an unsustainable path, and must urgently chart a new course forward, one that brings equity and environmental concerns into the economic mainstream. To do so, we must put sustainable development into practice now, not in spite of the economic crisis, but because of it. Jacob Zuma, Tarja Halonen 2012-02-06T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/gabowitsch1/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/gabowitsch1/English>WEEKLY: A Strategy for Russia’s Snow Revolution</a> So far, Russia's protesters have gotten much right: they have focused on a single demand – fair elections – and have united liberals, communists, nationalists, and otherwise apolitical citizens in a broad coalition. If their movement is to succeed, however, maintaining a commitment to non-violence is likely to be the key. Mischa Gabowitsch 2012-02-05T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/gros32/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/gros32/English>GROS: Austerity under Attack</a> As the European economy risks falling into recession, many observers are asking whether austerity could lead to such a sharp decline in economic activity that revenues fall and the fiscal position actually deteriorates further. But it would be dangerous for the eurozone’s highly indebted countries to abandon austerity now. Daniel Gros 2012-02-03T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/schwarzenberg6/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/schwarzenberg6/English>H RIGHTS: Havel Lives</a> <p>PRAGUE – The death of Václav Havel, the former president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, has been marked with mourning around the world. For his friends, the loss is overwhelming, but we all take comfort from the fact that his courage and his ideas helped to change our world for the better, and are still continuing to do so.</p><p>Throughout his life, Havel was an unconquerable fighter for freedom and human dignity. He was the leader of the Velvet Revolution, which brought communism to a peaceful end in his homeland, a dissident intellectual who, by his unswerving conscientiousness and disciplined, down-to-earth idealism, led his compatriots in their struggle to overcome the totalitarian mindset in the years after they regained their freedom. Indeed, that mental liberation remains a living, essential part of Havel’s legacy.  </p> Karel Schwarzenberg, Desmond Tutu, Richard von Weizsäcker 2012-02-03T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/benami62/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/benami62/English>BEN-AMI: The Decline of the West Revisited</a> Since the publication in 1918 of Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, prophecies about the inexorable doom of what he called the “Faustian Civilization” have been a recurrent topic for thinkers and public intellectuals. But the debate's recurrence is itself proof that Spengler was wrong. Shlomo Ben-Ami 2012-02-02T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/jecohen1/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/jecohen1/English>SCIENCE: A Seismic Crime</a> The devastating earthquake that hit L'Aquila, Italy in 2009 has sparked a court trial and lingering questions about scientific experts' failures to communicate risk to the public. Scientists around the world have rightly spoken out against the trial in Italy, but will we be ready when the next big earthquake strikes? Joel E. Cohen 2012-02-02T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/tyson2/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/tyson2/English>TYSON: America’s Three Deficits</a> The US faces painful choices about how to close its long-run fiscal gap, and a credible plan should be decided now and implemented promptly – but only after the economy has recovered. For the next few years, the priorities of fiscal policy should be jobs, investment, and growth. Laura Tyson 2012-02-02T00:00:00+01:00