Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
Five steps forward in 2011
By Michael Spence MILAN: The worst of the financial/economic crisis seems to be over. Asset markets performed reasonably well in 2010. Growth in the United States and parts of Europe returned. Private-sector deleveraging continued, but was counter-balanced by rising public-sector deficits and debt. And emerging-market growth returned to pre-crisis levels and appears to be sustainable, …
Tunisia’s new leaders look into political reforms
TUNIS: Tunisia’s acting leaders looked into political reforms Sunday following the abrupt end of former strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year rule, as the Arab state veered towards chaos. Soldiers and tanks were deployed around the capital Tunis after shops and homes were looted extensively and vandals set fire to the main railway station. …
The future of banking: Towards a new world order?
By Ron McMillan Today the environment in which bankers have spent most, if not all, of their careers has changed dramatically. The impact of the global financial crisis on the banking sector is still being examined against a background of weaker economic growth in the west combined with the rise of emerging market powerhouses such …
Is blasphemy hate speech?
By Aryeh Neier NEW YORK: The assassination of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province in Pakistan and an outspoken critic of religious extremism, has focused attention on his country’s draconian blasphemy law. Adopted in its present form by General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq’s military dictatorship more than three decades ago, the blasphemy law imposes a …
Seizing a new year’s opportunity for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations
By Michael Felsen Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts: As we enter 2011, there seems to be little cause for celebration about prospects for peace in the Middle East, especially following the breakdown of US-brokered negotiations upon Israel’s resumption of West Bank settlement construction in September. Since then, US efforts to restart the talks, including a generous package …
Is Cold War II underway?
By Yuriko Koike TOKYO: President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington is coming at an increasingly tense moment in Sino/American relations. Indeed, mesmerized by China’s vast military buildup, a new constellation of strategic partnerships among its neighbors, and America’s revitalized commitment to Asian security, many shrewd observers suggest that 2010 saw the first sparks of a …
Editorial: Tunisia leads the way
By Rania Al Malky CAIRO: What happened in Tunisia over the past three weeks is little short of a revolution whose domino effect many in Egypt hope will not only touch the banks of the Nile, but the capital cities of the entire Arab world. “No to presidency for life,” repeated Tunisian President Zein El …
Israel’s nuclear option in Iran
By Bennett Ramberg LOS ANGELES: Revelations in former President George W. Bush’s recently published memoirs show that he declined an Israeli request to destroy Syria’s secret nuclear reactor in the spring of 2007. While the revelation may appear merely to be a historical footnote, more profoundly it raises new uncertainty about whether Israel now thinks that …
Mr. Hu goes to Washington
By Chris Patten LONDON: President Hu Jintao will travel to the United States for his third official visit as China’s leader on Jan. 19. It may be his last before he hands over power to his apparently designated successor, Vice President Xi Jinping, in 2012 — coincidentally the same year that President Barack Obama will be …
Time to turn around worrisome trends in Pakistan
By Muqtedar Khan NEWARK, Delaware: Once again the viciousness that haunts Muslim communities has manifested itself in the form of a brutal assassination of the Pakistani Provincial Governor Salman Taseer on Jan. 4. The assassin, Taseer’s bodyguard, claimed that he killed Taseer because the governor was opposed to Pakistan’s blasphemy law. The assassination of Taseer will …
Youth Views: Al-Azhar’s English course is a window to the world
By Mohamed El Sayed CAIRO: Last year when I joined the English-language center at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, I thought it was just that — a center for teaching English. As a student, I didn’t expect it would be my window to the world. In the Quran, God says: “O mankind! Lo! We have created you …
Growing international recognition of a Palestinian state: A change in paradigm
By Ghassan Khatib Palestinians attach great importance to the recent series of Latin American states that have recognized an independent Palestine on the 1967 borders. Although Israel is downplaying this phenomenon, Palestinians look at it as part of general change in the attitude towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict of many prominent members of the international community. While …
New rules for the global economy
By Dani Rodrik CAMBRIDGE: Suppose that the world’s leading policymakers were to meet again in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to design a new global economic order. They would naturally be preoccupied with today’s problems: the eurozone crisis, global recovery, financial regulation, international macroeconomic imbalances, and so on. But addressing these issues would require the assembled leaders …
Asia in the balance
By Joseph Nye CAMBRIDGE: Last year, the leaders of all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council visited India, accompanied by delegations of business leaders. The Indian economy has been growing at more than 8 percent annually, making it increasingly attractive for trade and investment. When US President Barack Obama visited in November, he …
The historical misconception of ‘Copt’
By Karim Hamam CAIRO: Sometimes ignorance can make a nation war against itself. And sometimes that ignorance can be perpetuated by people that believe they are trying to help. The word “Copt” means “Egypt” — both terms coming to us from the Arabic word pronounced Qibt and the Greek Aigyptos, which is derived from the Egyptian …
Algeria: Highs and lows in education
By Oxford Business Group This has been a historic year for the Algerian education sector, with a record percentage of students passing national exams and government initiatives expanding schooling subsidies. However, teachers continue to call for changes and have threatened to strike. In July, the government reported that the percentage of students who had passed …
Peace, not process
By Daoud Kuttab RAMALLAH: The United States should stop pushing for the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Doing so might be the best way to achieve peace — a paradox that reflects the huge gap between a peace process and achieving genuine peace. Make no mistake: this is not a call to arms or an …
The nature of Palestinian sovereignty
By Mkhaimar Abusada GAZA CITY: The Arab Peace Initiative, which was adopted by the Arab League at its summit meeting in Beirut in 2002, is a comprehensive peace initiative first proposed by then-Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and re-endorsed at the Riyadh summit in 2007. The initiative attempts to end the Arab-Israel conflict, which means …
Demand or supply?
By Raghuram Rajan CHICAGO: Economics is all about demand and supply. Typically, the two are equal, and, if not, powerful forces push them towards each other. But, with high and persistent levels of unemployment in the United States, there is a real question about the nature of the problem: is aggregate demand too low, or are …
Silent momentum on climate change
By Achim Steiner NAIROBI: The last two years have been a roller coaster ride in respect to securing a new global treaty to combat climate change. Some even despair that the window for action is closing fast. But giving up is not an option. The latest round of climate negotiations, held last month in Cancún, Mexico, …
A world without violence: Religions and cultures in dialogue
By Oded Wiener JERUSALEM: There is great significance to the many efforts undertaken by some religious leaders in the Middle East who are working to create dialogue in place of the continual state of conflict and bloodshed between the people of the region. These religious leaders are aware of the vital need for compromise and achieving …
Israel’s wrong friends
By Ian Buruma JERUSALEM: Israel has been welcoming some rather peculiar visitors of late. The Dutch populist, Geert Wilders, is a frequent caller, telling sympathetic audiences that Israel is on the front line of the Western war against Islam. And, in December, a delegation of European far-right politicians toured Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank, …
Alexandria bombing: A crisis of our own making
By Joseph Fahim Last month, on my way back home from the airport, I found myself in the company of a young Coptic cab driver who had a thing or two to say about his feelings towards his Muslim neighbors. “We try to avoid them by all means,” he told me. “We have our community and …
How not to alienate and demonize victims
By John Drake LONDON: The terrorists responsible for the New Year attack on an Alexandria church may be intent on stirring up more than just sectarian tensions in one country. They may be trying to crystallize anti-Christian and even anti-western sentiment in the wider Islamic world. Coptic churches throughout the Middle East, Europe and North America …
The Japan myth
By Daniel Gros BRUSSELS: The first decade of this century started with the so-called dot-com bubble. When it burst, central banks moved aggressively to ease monetary policy in order to prevent a prolonged period of Japanese-style slow growth. But the prolonged period of low interest rates that followed the 2001 recession instead contributed to the emergence …
Debt and democracy
By Harold James PRINCETON – The European Union’s sovereign-debt crisis constitutes a fundamental threat not only to the euro, but also to democracy and public accountability. At the moment, Europe’s woes and dilemmas are confined to relatively small countries like Greece, Ireland, and Hungary. But all of them look as if their governments have cheated on …
The chaotic birth of South Sudan
By Shlomo Ben Ami MADRID: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that was reached in 2005 between mostly Christian southern Sudan and the country’s Muslim North, ended one of the bloodiest civil wars in modern times. Lasting 22 years, that war left more than two million dead. Now the CPA is poised to face its most vital …
What next for Egypt?
By Rania Al Malky CAIRO: National unity, citizenship, democracy, rule of law, social fabric… the list can go on ad nauseam. Indeed nausea is what many in Egypt are feeling right now. Nausea at the sight of the blood-splattered walls of a church, where lingering bits of flesh are a stark reminder of a heinous crime. …
An insider’s reflections on Israeli-Palestinian dialogue
By Carol Daniel Kasbari JERUSALEM: Why are we meeting? What is our goal? And if we achieve it, will it have any impact on the reality outside? These are a few of the questions Israeli and Palestinian members of dialogue groups ask before, during and after joint meetings. As a facilitator and mediator who has worked …
Does Pakistan need an Assange of its own?
By Huma Yusuf KARACHI/WASHINGTON, DC: A week after the recent WikiLeaks disclosures, two local non-profit organizations held a seminar in Karachi called, “Freedom of Information: Access to Information, Using Freedom of Information for Advocacy”. Participants in the discussion called for better enforcement of Pakistan’s freedom of information laws to enhance transparency and government accountability. While the …