NEW YORK: American elections usually produce a brief euphoria; the public sense of renewal, of future possibilities, acts as a shot of adrenaline. This year, however, the palpable relief and celebration will be tempered by the widely shared sense that all is not well in America. The economic data are almost uniformly bleak and will …

CAMBRIDGE: If the world were fair, most emerging markets would be watching the financial crisis engulfing the world’s advanced economies from the sidelines – if not entirely unaffected, not overly concerned either. For once, what has set financial markets ablaze are not their excesses, but those of Wall Street. Emerging markets’ external and fiscal positions …

LONDON: Now that the shock waves touched off by Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks at Regensburg on Sept. 12, 2006, have subsided, the overall consequences have proven more positive than negative. Above and beyond polemics, the Pope’s lecture has heightened general awareness of their respective responsibilities among Christians and Muslims in the West. It matters little …

AMMAN: Leaders across the Middle East congratulated Barack Obama on his historic election victory as the 44th president of the United States. Many anticipated that his administration would usher in a fresh new policy and approach that would bring peace to a region plunged into great turbulence during the past eight years of the George …

How will president-elect Barack Obama deal with moderate Islamists in the Middle East? That is the question that is preoccupying Islamists and Arab authoritarian regimes alike. Despite President Bush’s tragic mistakes in the region, he has played an important role in the Islamists’ rise in many Arab countries, such as Morocco, Bahrain, Iraq, Egypt and …

NEW YORK: While talking to an Iranian official in Tehran earlier this year, he reminded me of Ayatollah Khomeini’s fondness for comparing the relationship between the United States and Iran to that between a wolf and a lamb. But the official went on to add his own twist, “Nearly 30 years have passed, and we …

LONDON: According to Hamas leaders, Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has stood against any bilateral meetings between the two factions because he wants to end his term in office on Jan. 9, 2009 without paying any price. On the eve of the reconciliation sessions in Cairo, Hamas leaders feared that Abbas may rally …

UNITED NATIONS: As world leaders gather in Washington, they would do well to remember that we face two crises. The global financial crisis is most immediate; the more existential is climate change. The urgency of the first is no excuse for neglecting the second. To the contrary, it is an opportunity to kill two birds …

SARAJEVO: Thirteen years ago, American leadership brought an end to Bosnia s three-and-a-half-year war through the Dayton peace agreement. Today that country is now in real danger of collapse. As in 1995, resolve and transatlantic unity are needed if we are not to sleepwalk into another crisis. Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, once the …

LISBON: Since 9/11 and the protracted conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, initiatives aimed at fostering greater understanding between different faiths and cultures have proliferated, especially when related to Western-Muslim relations. But do such initiatives have any real impact on public opinion? Can they reduce the threat of tensions generated by extremist ideologies? These are important …

JERUSALEM: After a month of haggling, Tzipi Livni, appointed to replace outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, announced last week that she has not been able to form a coalition government to support her rule. “Let the people choose their leaders, she said instead, calling for early elections likely to take place in February of …

PRINCETON: The chaotic and costly international response to the world’s current financial disorder has prompted French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and German President Horst Köhler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund, to call for a new Bretton Woods Conference in order to design a new global financial system. But …

AMMAN: The Bush administration will establish the first official US diplomatic presence in Tehran before it leaves office, according to reports published last week. A US interests section in the Iranian capital would be the first step towards restoring full diplomatic ties, severed since the 1979 hostage crisis amidst the tumult of the Islamic Revolution. …

LONDON: In Damascus, a massive statue of the late President Hafez Al-Assad sits on a mighty iron chair outside the 22,000 square meters Assad Library, a giant book open in his right hand. Behind him lie the archives of his dictatorship. But not a single state paper is open to the people of Syria. There …

On a recent trip back from Paris, I met a few French tourists on the plane. The moment they found out that I was Egyptian, they started asking me several things that worried them about Egypt. One of them said that friends of his told him that they had chosen the worst time of the …

WASHINGTON, DC: The world is in the midst of an unprecedented financial crisis affecting all countries. Coordinated measures have been taken, unique in size and scope, to restore confidence and limit the damage caused to the world economy. President George W. Bush has invited world leaders to a summit in Washington on November 15 to …

NEW YORK: The world is sinking into a major global slowdown, likely to be the worst in a quarter-century, perhaps since the Great Depression. This crisis was “made in America, in more than one sense. America exported its toxic mortgages around the world, in the form of asset-backed securities. America exported its deregulatory free market …

CAIRO: Barack Obama’s historic election as the first African-American President of the United States this week, though inspiring, was a bitter reminder of the stark difference between “us and “them. Ever since George W. Bush was elected for a second term in 2004, despite his ill-conceived invasion of Iraq under the guise of the war …

CHICAGO: The United States has a different face. Having glimpsed the victims of Katrina, the jailers of Abu Ghraib and the failed financiers of Wall Street, the world can see the next president of the United States. He is a symbol of what America wants to be now. After the longest and costliest election in …

So overwhelming and enduring have been the hardships of life in Egypt that many Egyptians adopted the notion that their country is destined to live in misery and agony forever. That’s not true, however. History is entertaining because of its volatility and dynamism. Some empires wither away, others rise and the theater of history is …

CAMBRIDGE: One of the first challenges that President Barack Obama will face is the effects of the ongoing financial crisis, which has called into question the future of American power. An article in The Far Eastern Economic Review proclaims that “Wall Street’s crack-up presages a global tectonic shift: the beginning of the decline of American …

LONDON: Following weeks of financial and economic turmoil, public debate has finally turned to the horrific potential human ramifications of the collapse of the global financial system. Comparisons and contrasts with the Great Depression of the 1930’s have inevitably become a central part of that discourse – and rightly so. There is much that the …

AMMAN: The Bush administration will establish the first official US diplomatic presence in Tehran before it leaves office, according to reports published last week. A US interests section in the Iranian capital would be the first step towards restoring full diplomatic ties, severed since the 1979 hostage crisis amidst the tumult of the Islamic Revolution. …

SINGAPORE: Barack Obama’s election comes at a moment when a new bit of conventional wisdom is congealing. It concerns the end of America’s global dominance. True, freewheeling American-style capitalism has not acquitted itself proudly of late. And America’s military superiority has not proved all that useful in accomplishing American ends. But who may pick up …

NEW YORK: Why do Europeans adore America’s president-elect, Barack Obama? Stupid question, you might say. He is young, handsome, smart, inspiring, educated, cosmopolitan, and above all, he promises a radical change from the most unpopular American administration in history. Compare that to his rival John McCain, who talked about change, but to most Europeans represented …

PRINCETON: The astonishing story of Barack Obama’s election as president has already done much to restore America’s global image. In place of a president whose only qualification for the office was his father’s name, we now have one whose intelligence and vision overcame the formidable obstacle of being the exotically named son of an African …

TOLEDO, SPAIN: This autumn, the Toledo International Centre for Peace convened a meeting devoted to water cooperation in the Middle East. One conclusion that emerged was that any effective response to the unequal distribution of natural resources in the region must be regional. With this idea in mind, Munther Haddadin, a former Jordanian minister of …

AMMAN: I must say I wasn’t surprised when I read the statements made by outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I had been informed by an Israeli friend of mine about Olmert’s dramatic conversion over the past few years, and especially last year. The statements can be seen as a refreshing …

LONDON: Covering developments in Pakistan in recent weeks, I’ve been struck by how many Pakistanis blame the United States for the disturbing turn their country is taking. Standing inside the gutted Islamabad Marriott late September, some eyewitnesses saved their most bitter remarks not for the suicide bomber, but for Washington. A few believed the outrageous …

Perhaps the only time an opposition coalition succeeded was in the 1919 Revolution, when the entire political movement spectra united in a revolution against the monarchy and British occupation. This coalition succeeded unexpectedly. One of its fruits was the establishment of the liberal and authority-balanced 1923 Constitution, which would remain an important milestone in modern …