June 26, 2007
The new EU treaty’s fatal flaw
“It is easy to arrange boxes on an organizational chart, to create jobs and centers and ministries, combine them, or shuffle them. But this never solves a problem of insufficient political will and resources to make a policy work. At the EU level, the creation of a foreign representative and a ministry to support him at this weekend’s summit is a useful step. But that representative will be limited by the set of tools available…”
June 8, 2007
I analysed the G8 summit on NPR’s “Here and Now” just before the summit (a bit over halfway through), and on KQED (San Francisco)’s “Forum” as it was in progress, with Michael McFaul and Lael Brainard. The latter, in particular, was an interesting hour with great co-guests.
The modern diplomatic concert may be less tuneful than the old one
“Foreign-policy types from many potential players in a democratic ensemble (including Japan, Brazil, Canada, India, Australia and Britain) will hold a brainstorming session with some of the American thinkers, such as Ivo Daalder and Tony Lake, who are promoting the new concert idea. At its most Utopian, a “concert of democracies” would be an institution to trump all institutions: a global club, led but not monopolised by America, that would fight poverty, stem climate change and resist tyrants. Some see it as a body that could authorise the use of force; others want it to start small and prove itself.…”
