The ongoing saga of Israeli-Russian rapprochement has produced an intruiging subplot: the deterioration of Israel’s bond with the Republic of Georgia.Once upon a time, Georgia saw Israel as a model and an inspiration, another small country who had survived a struggle for statehood in the face of overwhelming hostility from its neighbors. Israel, in turn, […]

Humanitarian watchdogs are aghast at the news of sizable cuts of European development aid to poor countries. The BBC reports on how the pressures of Europe’s economic crisis have reversed a decade-long upward trend in aid: In the year 2010-11, Spain cut its aid budget—the sixth largest in Europe—by nearly a third.Greece cut its much smaller […]

The biggest scam going in American financial life may be the collusive effort by Wall Street, the political class, and public sector unions to use union retirement money to prop up Wall Street speculation.Step One: state politicians promise big pension and health care benefits to their unionized work forces, but don’t set aside enough money […]

Construction has been one of the main drivers of China’s economic growth, responsible for roughly 15 percent of GDP in recent years. But as the Financial Times notes, China’s housing market has two faces: a frothy bubble in the biggest cities, where house prices are out of reach for all but the wealthiest Chinese, and hangover and […]

After discussing the conflict in Syria with President Barack Obama at the G-20 Summit this week (Zaman), Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued fresh calls for action against the regime (Radikal). Three days later, spokesman for Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, Selcuk Ünal, denied claims published in the New York Times that Ankara had paid for shipments […]

The Egyptian People have spoken, and the military has dutifully recognized Mohammed Morsi as the country’s first democratically elected president.The timing of this announcement (and the long delay while ballots were, ahem, processed) is indicative of a calculated political move by the ruling generals. It is likely that the military and the Morsi camp talked […]

Is America “pivoting” in Asia, or “rebalancing?” This is the kind of question that keeps bureaucrats writing long memos, but in the real world the labels are less important than the facts. In his recent speech at the Shangri-La Security Dialogue in Singapore, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta adopted the term “rebalancing” to denote Washington’s enhanced […]

In most western countries, central banks are, at least in theory, wholly divorced from the political process. Central bankers are selected to terms far longer than that of the average politician—and they are typically allowed to oversee numerous changes in political leadership during their time at the helm—in order to insulate them from the rough […]

Our weekend forecast is looking good: Syria shooting down a Turkish fighter jet appears unlikely to spark an international intervention as the EU and NATO nations urge caution from the Turks: “We will be obviously looking to Turkey to be restrained in its response” —Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief. “Military intervention in Syria […]

For a time, Stalin was a big supporter of Israel, and its war of independence was won thanks in part to weapons delivered from communist Czechoslovakia with Stalin’s blessing. Relations cooled during the Cold War, especially as Israel aligned more closely with Washington. On Monday, Vladimir Putin visits Jerusalem in his first foreign tour since […]