CAIRO: The United States didn’t need the Pearl Harbor crisis in 1941 to break its isolation and end the state of uncertainty that prevailed in the international order throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Neither was Soviet Russia in need of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989 to know …

CAMBRIDGE: Capitalism is in the throes of its most severe crisis in many decades. A combination of deep recession, global economic dislocations, and effective nationalization of large swathes of the financial sector in the world’s advanced economies has deeply unsettled the balance between markets and states. Where the new balance will be struck is anybody’s …

During the 1996 Israeli election, I was in the Channel 4 Television studios in London. I still remember the surrealistic atmosphere sitting in the editing room, putting the final touches on a film that was supposed to be broadcast in an hour, while on a small TV, the Channel s news was broadcasting images of …

CAIRO: In an attempt to invigorate Egypt’s new traffic law that went into effect last August, hundreds of drivers were arrested last month in various cities for driving in the wrong direction. According to the new law, driving in the wrong direction is penalized by up to three years in jail. Laws, theoretically speaking, are …

CAIRO: There is no doubt that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict represents one of the most significant factors negatively affecting the image and security of the United States and its allies. Among the challenges facing the Obama administration is improving this image, along with US relations with the Muslim world. US President Barack Obama, in his …

LONDON: Quite right – the Obama administration is gearing up to pressure the Europeans to put more men in boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Quite right – the Europeans don t want to engage in a war of attrition – à la Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s or like the United States in …

BRUSSELS: It is time for José Manuel Barroso to start selling himself. His chances of being re-appointed as President of the European Commission depend on the case he makes. Until the global financial crisis broke, Barroso looked fairly certain to get a second five-year term. Now, it is becoming increasingly hard to find diplomats or …

JERUSALEM: A new way needs to be carved out that will allow Israel to express its nationalism in Hebron without conceding land or creating an apartheid state. In many ways, the dilemma posed by Hebron embodies the ongoing struggle of Zionism since its inception over the biblical territories of Israel. Hebron, however, presents this dilemma …

BRUSSELS: Has the “energy weapon of the 1970’s – the withholding of energy supplies for political ends – returned? Using oil or gas as a political weapon is easier said than done, of course, but this year’s renewal of the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, and the resulting cut-off of supplies to much of the European Union, …

CAMBRIDGE: Two years ago, Barack Obama was a first-term senator from a mid-western state who had declared his interest in running for the presidency. Many people were skeptical that an African-American with a strange name and little national experience could win. But as his campaign unfolded, he demonstrated that he possessed the powers to lead …

I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return to Palestine . It was the right thing to do. I ve heard about the European holocaust against the Jews since I was a small child. I ve visited the memorials in Washington , DC and Jerusalem dedicated to …

NAIROBI: With unemployment soaring, bankruptcies climbing, and stock markets in free-fall, it may at first glance seem sensible to ditch the fight against climate change and put environmental investments on hold. But this would be a devastating mistake of immediate, as well as inter-generational, proportions. Far from burdening an already over-stressed, over-stretched global economy, environmental …

FLORENCE: US President Barack Obama’s administration has lost little time in announcing that it will seek direct talks with the Iranian government. This means, at the very least, a tough confrontation over Iran’s quest for a regional strategic advantage in the form of a nuclear weapon. There is more at stake here than coming up …

WASHINGTON DC: Hijabi-a word that is not proper Arabic but has become part of Muslim American parlance-refers to the Muslim woman who wears a headscarf. This term, which we first used in jest to refer to a series of monologues describing experiences of Muslim women in North America, eventually stuck. Unlike Eve Ensler’s famous production, …

OXFORD: A new way of thinking about individual choice has taken the political landscape by storm. America’s new president Barack Obama and the leader of the British Conservatives, David Cameron (just to drop a couple of names) have shown an interest in it. Its intellectual and academic pedigree is impeccable. It is said to be …

WASHINGTON: President Obama has ended the ban on federal funds imposed by the Bush Administration on groups that promote or perform abortions abroad and on the United Nations Population Fund. He must take this opportunity to put pressure on the UNFPA to concentrate on the health of women and babies – and to stop wasting …

A foreign journalist asked me about the most important political issue currently preoccupying Egyptians. I assured him right away that it was debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos involving Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Israeli President Shimon Peres. “I personally …

Nothing represents the absurd reality on the ground in Gaza better than the scene that has unfolded two weeks after Operation Cast Lead ended. Hamas is still shooting rockets, the population is in anguish, Hamas activists have housed some of the homeless in relief tents – they are refugees, after all – and all the …

The Middle East peace process never depended on the personality of the occupant of the White House. Had it, we might have seen some progress over the past few decades. Some presidents have tried to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; others have ignored it under various pretexts. All have one thing in common: no one ever …

CAIRO: Egypt’s annual international book extravaganza, the Cairo International Book Fair, always comes with its fair share of sexy controversies that make great headlines. I recall in 2003 when several high-profile authors and intellectuals boycotted the 2003 Cairo International Book Fair when Azhar scholars mounted a campaign against three novels published by a State-run institution …

PRINCETON: The most recent phase of the financial crisis, since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, has been characterized by large bank losses and the continued threat of bank collapses. The size of the calamity raises the question of whether small countries can really afford bank bailouts. But the definition of “small keeps …

It is too early to evaluate the direction the Mitchell mission is taking. Mitchell s preliminary visit, immediately after the war in Gaza and just days before Israel s elections, can only be defined as an orientation tour. Hence at this early date, we can address the Mitchell mission only in terms of the direction …

The appointment of Senator George Mitchell as Middle East envoy for the new Obama administration was generally received positively in Palestinian political and intellectual circles. The public, which judges developments only by their results, remained indifferent. The appointment confirmed President Barack Obama s declared intention of early engagement and thus contributed to building some credibility …

KFAR KARA, Israel: At the junction of the Arab village of Kfar Kara, Arabs and Jews stood in a peaceful demonstration, wearing white scarves and holding olive branches. They held hands together, standing silently and solemnly. Passing vehicles cheered their support for peaceful co-existence in Israel. The symbolic chain of Arabs and Jews standing hand …

JERUSALEM: Europe’s vocation for peacemaking and for international norms of behavior is bound to become the base upon which Barack Obama will seek to reconstruct the transatlantic alliance that his predecessor so badly damaged. How fast America’s new president addresses the Arab-Israeli conflict will be of paramount concern to Europeans in this effort. For to …

NEW YORK: For 15 years, I have attended the World Economic Forum in Davos. Typically, the leaders gathered there share their optimism about how globalization, technology, and markets are transforming the world for the better. Even during the recession of 2001, those assembled in Davos believed that the downturn would be short-lived. But this time, …

BETHLEHEM: Every few years, for the last 61, another war is foisted on the Palestinians. Beginning with Haifa and Akka in 1948, on the Palestinians alongside Egypt in 1956, with the Jordanians, Syrians and Egyptians in 1967, then again in 1973, 1981, 1983, 2002, 2006 and now in 2008-9 in Gaza. Arab leaders approach every …

BANGKOK: A friend recently asked a seemingly naïve question: “What is money? How do I know I can trust that it is worth what it says it is worth? We learn in introductory economics that money is a medium of exchange. But why do we accept that? Banknotes are just pieces of paper with a …

MANILA: Unlike his predecessor, US President Barack Obama is popular from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He has reached out to the Muslim world and pledged to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without delay. The nations of Asia have a particular affection for him, owing to the years he spent as a child in Indonesia. If …

I happen to come from the Muslim world, and I now know it by heart that America is not our enemy. Bush told us about that when the US invaded Iraq and turned it into a bloodbath. He announced not being Iraqis enemy in a televised speech in 2003. He had also told Afghans so …