Mario Monti’s presentation of his new book at the Bozar auditorium ten days ago was regrettably short on substance, like the book itself. Monti traded political indiscretions for audience applause. With friends like this, the federalist cause of EU reform has little chance of gaining traction. Read on….
The case for a federal Union: Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Debout l’Europe!
The authors’ call for radical reform of the European Union, in effect turning it into a United States of Europe has, regrettably, more passion than reason. A very worthy cause is not adequately served by inconsistencies in logic and tactics. Read on…
Vladimir Putin to the Opposition over rumors of his medical problems: “Don’t hold your breath!”
By his transparency, feistiness, common sense reasoning and earthy, idiomatic language, Vladimir Putin has shown in his three major public appearances of December 2012 that he has no peers on the international political stage. Read on…
Travel Notes from Poland: Observations and Reminiscences
The key conclusion of a 5 day nostalgic return visit to Poland is: don’t believe what your cleaning lady tells you. Read on.
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Harvard 45th Reunion Class Report and the Conduct of U.S. Foreign Policy
The recently issued quinquennial reunion Report of Harvard ‘s Class of 1967 holds a key to understanding how and why the U.S. government gets a free ride to conduct foreign policy without bothersome questioning from citizen activists. Read on….
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New Flemish Alliance Electoral Victory: Belgium’s Inexorable Slide into Dissolution
The Bart De Wever who appeared on television for his victory acceptance speech today looked like a well-tailored, lean and mean member of the elite rather than some slouchy, overfed and lower class meatball. His opponents would be well advised to treat him with the utmost seriousness. Read on…
Les voyages informent la vieillesse: Travel notes from Istanbul
Once known for its cosmopolitanism and thriving ethnic Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities which all disappeared in the midst of ethnic cleansing of the 1950s, Istanbul has taken on a new sophistication very different from what it lost but equally authentic. Read on…
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Finland, Oy, Oy, Oy! Travel Notes from Karelia
One’s perception of Finland always depended on where you were coming from…and going to. That truism remains, while in the post-Cold War era everything else one might say about the country and its people has changed. Read on….
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Second Open Letter to MEP Guy Verhofstadt
Since MEP Guy Verhofstadt persists in his folly and plays the cat’s paw to the US State Department in its anti-Russian, hegemonic policies, I return to my admonition to him published on this site on 12 March 2012. Perhaps I was too gentle, and he did not get the point. So let’s be more direct this time: the right honorable gentleman is giving the European Parliament a bad name by his antics. Read on….
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George Kennan and the Russian Soul: Issues from the authorized Kennan biography by John Lewis Gaddis
John Gaddis’s authorized biography of the leading American statesman and public intellectual of the second half of the 20th century, George Kennan, puts in focus current debates over the realist versus idealist management of international affairs, as well as over what personality types are best suited to policy planning versus diplomatic assignments. Read on…
Gilbert Doctorow 