THOUGHT LEADERS
History in Motion
Chris Patten
Should governments really never negotiate with terrorists? When and how should we recognize new nations? Do East and West confront an unbridgeable cultural divide or simply a developmental time lag?
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Is China Overplaying Its Hand?
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion 2010-02-19Just last year, America’s financial difficulties and foreign entanglements, together with China’s economic ascent, led many to envisage the emergence of a sort of global condominium between the two countries. But, thanks to China's recent behavior on several issues, the idea of a G-2 that resolves major global problems has quickly lost plausibility.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 1 Read: 3677
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A Cool Head for the Hottest Issues
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion 
2010-01-20
Recalling Hillary Clinton’s famous Democratic primary television advertisement, Barack Obama, it turns out, is exactly the sort of president that most of us would want to have in the post for that 3 a.m. phone call about an international crisis. He is not afraid to act, but he is prepared to think first.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 3001
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Bad Money, Good Money
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion 2009-12-29We should not allow our rage at the unseemly behavior of bankers to turn into an all-purpose rant against personal wealth. Sometimes its owners use it in hugely generous amounts for great public gain.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 4126
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Europe’s Vision Free Leadership
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion
2009-11-23
The selection of Herman van Rompuy as President of the EU’s Council of Ministers, and of Lady Catherine Ashton as its foreign policy chief, underlines the extent to which the EU's member states are in the driver’s seat. As a result, Europe is in danger of becoming politically irrelevant, a successful customs union with a Swissified foreign policy and a group of fractious, vision-free leaders.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 4328
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Grumpy Old Men
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion 2009-10-27Today's pensioners, especially in the West, have little reason to grumble, given the massive social and economic progress that has been made in their lifetimes. But much of that progress has come at a huge cost in the form of climate change, for which today's children may have much to grumble about when they reach pensionable age.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 1 Read: 4984
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Mao’s China at 60
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion 2009-09-24
Every country is shaped by its history, but countries fabricate and rewrite their histories, too. This is especially true of our flawed heroes, as we see today with the Chinese Communist Party’s treatment of Mao Zedong.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 5287
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America’s Groucho Marxists
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion 2009-08-27“Who are you going to believe,” Groucho Marx once asked, “me, or your own eyes?” That question sums up the contempt for reason that characterized both Communist dictatorships and today's health-care debate in the US.... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 5606
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History, Used and Abused
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion 2009-07-27
Historical events are frequently used erroneously, if not tendentiously, to draw analogies to, and bolster support for, current foreign policies. But sometimes the analogies are correct, as is the case with the invocation of the Vietnam War-era "domino theory" to oppose abandoning the West's efforts in Afghanistan.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 6776
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The Obama Effect
Chris Patten Series: History in Motion 2009-06-26We often talk about the effect of economics on politics: when the economy slumps, so, too, do political incumbents' poll ratings. But in America we now see the effect of politics, in the form of a highly talented and popular president, on economic sentiment.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 7209
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