Freedom Faltering
A 1937 WPA painting. (x-ray delta one / flickr)

Freedom Faltering

Comment

The Democratic Malaise

Charles A. Kupchan
The advanced industrial democracies are facing a crisis of governability. Globalization is widening the gap between what voters demand and what their governments can deliver.
Review Essay

The Strange Triumph of Liberal Democracy

Shlomo Avineri
Intelligent observers of 1930s Europe thought its future belonged to communism or fascism. Why it didn't turn out that way.
Collection

An Archive Collection: Globalization

Globalization has made many richer but also poses a confounding question: What will it take for states to leave conflict behind and, instead, cooperate?
Response
Derek Scissors; Arvind Subramanian

China’s rise is overstated, and its financial problems are massive, argues Derek Scissors. Arvind Subramanian disagrees, claiming that Beijing already calls the shots in the global economy.

Snapshot
Hossein Mousavian

Two schools of thought dominate Iran's foreign policy-making; the first holds that Iran and the United States can reach a compromise through negotiations, the second that Washington is not a reliable partner. By pushing new sanctions and reneging on engagement, Washington has proved the second school right.

Snapshot
Shannon K. O'Neil

There are now three candidates for Mexico's July 1 presidential election, but it is Josefina Vázquez Mota’s place on the ticket that has the potential to upend the future of the country's politics. Unlike her two challengers, who are linked to the old guard and old boys' network, as a woman Vázquez Mota can claim to be the mantle of change, even against her own party.

Snapshot
Maria Lipman and Nikolay Petrov

The current protests in Moscow are too weak to radically change the country's politics by themselves. Nevertheless, they will continue to erode Putin's legitimacy. Even if he wins the March 4 election, he will not enjoy the same monopoly on power that he used to.

Letter From
Kayhan Barzegar

Iran's nuclear program will not live or die because of sanctions. The regime's calculus will not be adjusted because of economic pressure.

Snapshot
Afyare Abdi Elmi and Abdi Aynte

Somalia's government has recently made gains against the militant group al Shabaab. But those will prove fleeting if it does not find a way to address the organization's grievances and bring moderates into the fold.

Discussion

To create a conflict of the magnitude that the author suggests would vastly undermine Pakistan's more liberal leaders.
Submitted by Lawrence T. on February 8, 2012 - 9:39pm