In a series of monthly commentaries by leading statesmen Jorge Castañeda, Richard Haass and Michel Rocard, Project Syndicate offers a truly global perspective on some of today's most divisive issues - from terrorism and preemptive war, to protectionism and the role of cultural and religious values.
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2010-01-22
| There is no unanimity requirement or veto in the UN General Assembly, which might well be why it has not been called upon in the effort to fight climate change. Yet the General Assembly is the only place where obstruction by major countries – for example, by China and the United States at December’s global climate talks in Copenhagen – can be bypassed.... read |
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2009-12-18
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Three years ago this month, Mexican President Felipe Calderón donned military fatigues and declared a full-scale war on drugs, ordering the Army into Mexico’s streets, highways, and villages. Like George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, it was a war of choice, and it should never have been waged, because it can never be won.... read |
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2009-11-18
| The Cold War was won as a result of military "containment" of Soviet expansion, the Soviet bloc's own internal weaknesses, and efforts to provoke a crisis of confidence among communist leaders. The same combination of factors should be considered when confronting regimes like those in Iran and North Korea.... read |
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2009-10-22
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By awarding its Peace Prize for 2009 to Barack Obama, the Nobel Committee took a big risk. But the risk of devaluing the prize may have been worth it, because peace is hard to achieve and needs to be nurtured.... read |
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2009-09-18
| In early September, Colombia’s biggest businesses surprised everyone by declaring their wholehearted support for the country’s president, Alvaro Uribe, in his deepening conflict with Venezuela. But Uribe will probably have to step down as president before Colombia can enlist allies in its case against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.... read |
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2009-08-18
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As world leaders prepare for the December's summit on Climate change in Copenhagen, it should come as no surprise that there is little consensus on a comprehensive accord that would have a meaningful impact. But, while a universal agreement with binding limits on carbon emissions seems out of the question, smaller steps can, and should, be taken.... read |
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2009-07-31
| We are now in a strange period in which governments, bankers, and journalists herald the end of the economic crisis just because large banks are no longer failing every week. But nothing has been solved, and unemployment continues to rise.... read |
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2009-06-18
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After 47 years, the Organization of American States, at its annual General Assembly, has repealed its suspension of Cuba’s membership. The outcome signals the growing assertiveness of Latin America's hard-left regimes, as well as the unwillingness of its democracies to confront them.... read |
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2009-05-01
| In contrast to George W. Bush's “idealist” advocacy of making democracy promotion the main priority for US foreign policy, the Obama administration is engineering a return to "realism" that is both desirable and necessary. While encouraging the rule of law and the growth of civil society, the US still needs to work with other governments, democratic and otherwise.... read |
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An Alliance of Equals
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Michel Rocard 
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As the recent NATO summit in Strasbourg showed, the inability to discuss, clearly and forthrightly, strategic doctrine continues to hamper the Alliance. The key questions are whether NATO’s doctrine of common defense is currently directed at one country in particular, and whether nuclear force remains the Alliance’s major defensive tool.... read
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2009-11-18
| The Cold War was won as a result of military "containment" of Soviet expansion, the Soviet bloc's own internal weaknesses, and efforts to provoke a crisis of confidence among communist leaders. The same combination of factors should be considered when confronting regimes like those in Iran and North Korea.... read |
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2009-03-18
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In El Salvador, for the first time ever in Latin America, a former guerilla organization has achieved its aims through the ballot box. For the FMLN's leaders, unlike even Nicaragua's Sandinistas, remain largely allied with the region's "revolutionary" left, with no moderate faction to balance them.... read |
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2009-01-19
| Now that George W. Bush is gone, other countries will find that genuine multilateralism requires their willingness and ability to commit resources to deal with pressing challenges. Obama is likely to be more diplomatic than Bush, but he is also likely to be more demanding.... read |
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2008-10-17
| Much attention is focused on foreign policy differences between John McCain and Barack Obama. But there are also key similarities between them, in part because some of their disagreements are not as pronounced as they seem, and in part because the constraints that the next US president will face are certain to limit what either man could do in office.... read |
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2006-02-14
| For 350 years, sovereignty – the notion that states are the central actors on the world stage and that governments are essentially free to do what they want within their own territory but not within the territory of other states – has provided the organizing principle of international relations. The time has come to rethink this notion.... read |
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2005-11-15
| As I write this, violent clashes with the police have been going on for nearly two weeks in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities, with cars being set on fire at a rate of nearly 1,000 per night. Why is this happening? How far can it go?... read |
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2005-08-12
| The rejection of the European Union’s Constitutional Treaty by French and Dutch voters was, according to all evidence, more a rejection of unregulated globalization than it was a rejection of Europe. The general instability of social relations – most importantly, but not only, of employment – is slowly becoming intolerable for a growing part of the population in many developed countries, not just in Europe. And there cannot be a stable economic order – at least not in democratic countries – if electorates reject its underpinnings.... read |
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2006-03-03
| A debate on immigration is beginning in the United States Senate, which will take up several proposals. These include a hateful bill – which the House of Representatives has already approved – that provides for the construction of a wall along the US-Mexican border and makes unauthorized entry into the US a felony.... read |
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2005-10-17
| At first glance, Russia bears many of the hallmarks of a great power. It possesses a large arsenal of nuclear weapons, a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, enormous reserves of oil and other minerals, a recent record of robust economic growth, and more territory than any other country despite being only three-fourths the size of the former Soviet Union.... read |
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2006-01-03
| Turkey is now, finally, negotiating with the European Commission the terms of its possible membership in the European Union. But whether “possible” becomes “eventual” remains very much an open question. Indeed, completing the negotiations is likely to prove as difficult as the decision to start them.... read |
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2004-07-01
| Disputes between the United States and Europe are nothing new, as past tensions over Korea, Suez, and Vietnam demonstrate. But these earlier disputes occurred within a very different geopolitical context – the Cold War – and the bygone intellectual and political framework of containment. This context and framework disciplined transatlantic ties. Europeans and Americans alike recognized the need to limit and manage their differences in order to conserve their ability to deter and, if necessary, to defeat the Soviet Union.... read |
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2005-12-07
| Venezuela’s recent legislative elections confirmed trends that have repeatedly brought the country into the headlines in recent years. President Hugo Chávez showed once again that he enjoys broad support among the nation’s poor and desperate, and that he is miles ahead of his opposition in terms of political skill, cunning, and ruthlessness. Yet at the same time voter turnout is declining with each passing election under Chávez, and the questionable fairness of the electoral process has grown increasingly apparent.... read |
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2005-04-07
| Mention the United Nations and the first reaction is likely to be the ongoing oil-for-food scandal and what it will mean for Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s ability to lead the organization for the remaining year and a half of his tenure.... read |
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The Labyrinth of Graft
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Jorge G. Castañeda
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Corruption is not exactly a new phenomenon in Latin America. Indeed, corruption scandals have been a fixture on the region’s landscape since time immemorial. So there is nothing in principle new or surprising about the ongoing, almost endless drama that has engulfed Brazil’s President Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva, his political organization – the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, or Workers’ Party) – and much of the country’s political elite. But this scandal, unlike many others before it, is taking place in a consolidated democratic environment, and on the left.... read
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The Good Fallout from Iraq
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Michel Rocard
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Reconciling morals with how a society is organized - in other words, reconciling ethics with politics - is one of humanity's oldest ambitions. Hammurabi, Raamses II, Solon, Confucius, and Pericles were among the first great figures to embark on this effort. The emergence of the nation-state in the eighteenth century, and the extreme level of barbarism reached in the twentieth century, may have created the impression that an ethical politics was an unrealizable dream, or that it was a dream growing ever more distant as it receded into the future.... read
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Jorge G. Castañeda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico (2000-2003), is a Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American Studies at New York University.
Richard N. Haass, formerly Director of Policy Planning in the US State Department, is President of The Council on Foreign Relations.
Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister of France and a former leader of the Socialist Party, is a member of the European Parliament.
