Item 1: "Reset Reviewed" by Mikhail Gorbachev
- agreement on a framework for a future legally binding treaty on reducing strategic offensive arms - reaffirmation of the interrelationship between these weapons and missile defense
- resume military-to-military contacts between Russia and the United States - rebuilding mutual trust
- danger that the new relationship could be mired in inertia and routine
Item 2: "Will the US- Japan Alliance Survive" by Joseph Nye
- with the Japanese experiencing a period of domestic political uncertainty, and North Korea's nuclear tests and missile launches increasing their anxiety, will Japan reverse its long-standing decision not to seek a national nuclear-deterrent capability?
- 1996 - the Clinton-Hashimoto Declaration stated that the US-Japan security alliance was the foundation for stability that would allow growing prosperity in post-Cold War East Asia
- the alliance faces three major challenges:
i. North Korea - violated their agreements, knowing that China, the country with the greatest potential leverage, is most concerned about regime collapse in North Korea, and thus the threat of chaos on its borders - Japanese fear that the credibility of American extended deterrence will be weakened if the US decreases its nuclear forces to parity with China - a mistake, however, to believe that extended deterrence depends on parity in numbers of nuclear weapons - best guarantee of American extended deterrence over Japan remains the presence of nearly 50,000 American troops
ii. Dramatic rise of China's economy - Japan afraid of being passed-over - little prospect of such a reversal because China poses a potential threat, whereas Japan does not, and that the US shares democratic values with Japan, and China is not a democracy
iii. New set of transnational challenges to vital interests, such as pandemics, terrorism, and human outflows from failed states
Item 3: "Africa's New Path" by Fareed Zakaria
- In 2007, before the economic crisis hit, 37 countries on the continent were growing at 4 percent a year or more, and 34 countries there are classified by Freedom House as "free" or "partly free."
- OECD reports that, in a first, Africa gets more money from investors than from foreign aid
- Paul Kagamen paints an intriguing picture of what a more hopeful African future might look like—driven by capitalism, pride, indigenous traditions, and a prickly nationalism that insists on finding its own path to success
Item 4: "The Ten Commandments for Ambitious Policy Wonks" by Stephen Walt
i. Thou Shalt Not Question U.S. Membership in NATO
ii. Thou Shalt Oppose the Spread of Nuclear Weapons
iii. Thou Shalt Not Question the Need for a Nuclear Deterrent
iv. Thou Shalt Not Question the Desirability of American Primacy
v. Thou Shalt Not Call For an Accommodation with Cuba (or North Korea, or Iran, or….)
vi. Thou Shalt Not Criticize the Council on Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, IISS, Brookings, or other major foreign policy institution
vii. Thou Shalt Not Take the Armed Forces’ Name in Vain
viii. Thou Shalt Acknowledge the Importance of Human Rights, Democracy, and Other American “Values”
ix. Thou Shalt Not Question the Right of the United States to Intervene in Other Countries
x. Thou Shalt Not Favor Negotiating with “Terrorists”
Item 5: "It's All in the Low Enriched Uranium" by Mohamed ElBaradei
- The 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, is in disarray:
i. The five main nuclear-weapon states have not taken seriously their NPT obligation to work for nuclear disarmament
ii. Nothing to stop countries that sign the NPT from simply walking out after declaring that “extraordinary events” have jeopardized their supreme interests
iii. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is supposed to police the non-proliferation system, is shamefully underfunded
iv. Export controls have failed to prevent the spread of sensitive nuclear technology
v. The international community, spearheaded by the United Nations Security Council, has more often than not been paralyzed in the face of challenges to international security
- To end proliferation of nuclear weapons:
i. Bringing into force the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
ii. Negotiating a verifiable treaty to end production of fissile material for use in weapons
iii. Radically improving the physical security of nuclear and radioactive materials (which is vital to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists)
iv. Strengthening the IAEA
v. Establishing an IAEA bank of low-enriched uranium to guarantee supplies to countries that need nuclear fuel for their power reactors
Item 6: "Why the World Needs a United Nations Army" by Gideon Rachman
- Ronald Reagan once asked Mikhail Gorbachev to imagine that there was “suddenly a threat to this world from some other species, from another planet”. The late American president speculated that this would ensure “we would forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries”
- An extraordinary international flotilla is patrolling the waters off Somalia, in an effort to stop attacks on the 30,000 ships that pass through the Gulf of Aden every year - US, China, Iran and Japan are policing this crucial international waterway
- Growing demand for international peacekeeping forces means that it is time finally to bite the bullet and give the UN a permanent, standing military capacity
- Such a force need not be a conventional army, with its own barracks and personnel - It would be better to get countries to give the UN first call on a certain number of their troops, for a specific period of time
- Permanent UN capability would mean that the UN could intervene much more quickly - usually takes between three months and a year to deploy a UN force
- Ronald Reagan once spoke approvingly of the idea of “a standing UN force – an army of conscience – that is fully equipped and prepared to carve out human sanctuaries through force”
Item 7: "Asia's Weakness in the Global Economy" by Andrew Sheng
- Japan export-led manufacturing strategy was successfully imitated throughout East Asia and in the famous flying geese formation, the four Dragon economies (Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore) followed by four Tigers (Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia) rapidly formed the global supply chain
- South Asia went a slightly different path - Heavily influenced by Fabian socialist philosophy, the region adopted a protected import-substitution strategy, so that its manufacturing prowess could not compete with East Asia - But India was able to find a market niche in IT services, exploiting its large human talent in science and mathematics in knowledge-based work
- Asian corporate and economic strategy had a fundamental flaw - financial sectors were not well developed - led to the Asian crisis and also the global imbalance
- Global supply chain is a network and the Asian and current financial crises are in effect network crises
- Metcalfe's Law states that the value of the network is exponentially related to the number of users - in search of scale, Asian firms have expanded at almost any cost, very often through high leverage, incurring huge risks
- Value chains - three key parts — the manufacturing, the distribution and the trading side - as their production become commoditized, the value chain or profit lies more in the trading and distribution side
- Asian companies have not yet established world-class trading companies - reason is that the trading side is the most knowledge intensive and individualistic of business - no Asian houses have successfully established investment banks or made consistently large profits in proprietary trading on a global scale
Item 8: "Asia Keeps the West's Betrayed Faith" by Kishore Mahbubani and William Weld
- Asian economies only began to perform well when they accepted and implemented Adam Smith’s theories of free-market economics
- Asians have retained their faith in western theories on economics, but have progressively lost faith in western practices of economic management
- Amartya Sen - the invisible hand of the marketplace has to be balanced by an emphasis on the visible hand of good governance
- Asia-Pacific region is exploding with new FTAs - largest in the world will be the one between the 1.2bn people of China and the 500m of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - has already been signed and ratified, and comes into force in 2010 - recent study by the Asian Development Bank notes that there are about 20 cross-regional FTAs at different stages of implementation, which have significantly improved economic welfare
- The current phase of globalisation was generated by the west, to be sure, but now we may witness the Asianisation of globalisation
26 July 2009
08 July 2009
Eighth July Two Thousand Nine
Item 1: "Robert S. McNamara, Architect of a Futile War, Dies at 93" by Tim Weiner
- He was 93
- the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century
- Served Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968
- Half a million American soldiers went to war on his watch. More than 16,000 died; 42,000 more would fall in the seven years to come
- He had spent decades thinking through the lessons of the Vietnam war - The greatest of these was to know one’s enemy — and to “empathize with him... We must try to put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes,” as Mr. McNamara explained
- “What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”
- McNamara's idea — a secret deal in which Kennedy offered to withdraw his missiles in Turkey if Khrushchev removed his warheads from Cuba — resolved the Cuban missile crisis
- Congress authorized the Vietnam war after Johnson contended that American warships had been attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin on Aug. 4, 1964 - The attack never happened
- his often aloof and occasionally arrogant conduct left him with few allies inside the Pentagon when the war began to go wrong
- he listed reasons America lost the Vietnam War: a failure to understand the enemy, a failure to see the limits of high-tech weapons, a failure to tell the truth to the American people and a failure to grasp the nature of the threat of communism
- “War is so complex it’s beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend,” he concluded. “Our judgment, our understanding, are not adequate. And we kill people unnecessarily.”
Item 2: "Obama's Style Trumps Substance, Again" by Stephen M. Walt
- Russia diapproves of the US because - Bush administration abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2001, invaded Iraq in 2003, pressed forward with plans for missile defenses in Eastern Europe, cultivated close ties with several post-Soviet republics in Central Asia, and pushed NATO to accelerate membership for Georgia and Ukraine in 2008
- US disapproves Russia because - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule, his use of Russia’s oil and gas exports as an instrument of leverage, his none-too-transparent effort to re-establish a sphere of influence around Russia’s borders, and Moscow’s reluctance to help stop the Iranian nuclear programs
- Obama and his foreign-policy team understood that the United States could not continue to challenge Russia’s sensitivities on missile defense, NATO membership for Ukraine, etc., and still expect to get Russian help vis-à-vis Iran, North Korea, or Afghanistan
- Obama - “the arc of history shows us that governments which serve their own people survive and thrive; governments which serve only their own power do not.”
Item 3: "Oil Prices Need Government Supervision" by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy
- For two years the price of oil has been dangerously volatile, seemingly defying the accepted rules of economics. First it rose by more than $80 a barrel, then fell rapidly by more than $100 before doubling to its current level of around $70. In that time, however, there has been no serious interruption of supply.
- windfalls from brief price surges are offset by the consequent difficulties of planning national budgets and investment strategies
- International Energy Agency - cut its long-term forecast of oil consumption by almost a quarter
- We therefore call upon the International Organization of Securities Regulators to consider improving transparency and supervision of the oil futures markets in order to reduce damaging speculation
Item 4: "My Message to G8 Leaders" by Ban Ki-moon
- The last two years have witnessed a cascade of interconnected crises: financial panic, rising food and oil prices, climate shocks, a flu pandemic, and more
- G8 and other major emitters of greenhouse gases must intensify their work to seal a deal at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December
- G8 should take specific steps needed to honour long-standing but unfulfilled pledges of support to poor countries to help them achieve the millennium development goals
- G8 should focus urgent attention on the intensifying global hunger crisis - the world's hungry now number one billion
Item 5: "Seven Ways to Build a Cleaner Planet" by Tony Blair
- Breaking the Climate Deadlock project, a strategic partnership between my office and The Climate Group, shows how major reductions even by 2020 are achievable if we focus action on certain key technologies, deploy policies that have been proven to work, and invest now in developing those future technologies that will take time to mature
- 70 per cent of the reductions needed by 2020 can be achieved by investing in three areas: increasing energy efficiency, reducing deforestation, and use of lower-carbon energy sources
- Implementing just seven proven policies - renewable energy standards (say, feed-in tariffs or renewable portfolio standards); industry efficiency measures; building codes; vehicle efficiency standards; fuel carbon content standards; appliance standards, and policies for reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation - can deliver these reductions
Item 6: "Spiegel Interview with Henry Kissinger" by Der Spiegel
- The map of Europe which emerged from the Treaty of Versailles is, more or less, the map of Europe that exists today
- Any international system must have two key elements for it to work:
i. A certain equilibrium of power that makes overthrowing the system difficult and costly.
ii. A sense of legitimacy.
- The American view was that peace is the normal condition among states. To ensure lasting peace, an international system must be organized on the basis of domestic institutions everywhere, which reflect the will of the people, and that will of the people is considered always to be against war. Unfortunately, there is no historic evidence that this is true.
- Before World War I, Germany faced three major countries on its borders: Russia, France, and Britain. After Versailles, Germany faced a collection of smaller states on its eastern borders, against each of which it had a huge grievance but none of which was capable of resisting Germany alone
- Cynics treat values as equivalent and instrumental. Statesmen base practical decisions on moral convictions.
- The outcome can only be a two-state solution, and there seems to be substantial agreement on the borders of such a state
- I do not see any conflicts between such major countries, China, Russia, India, and the U.S., which will justify a military solution
- The relationship of China with the rest of the world is a lot more important in historic terms
- He was 93
- the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century
- Served Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968
- Half a million American soldiers went to war on his watch. More than 16,000 died; 42,000 more would fall in the seven years to come
- He had spent decades thinking through the lessons of the Vietnam war - The greatest of these was to know one’s enemy — and to “empathize with him... We must try to put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes,” as Mr. McNamara explained
- “What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”
- McNamara's idea — a secret deal in which Kennedy offered to withdraw his missiles in Turkey if Khrushchev removed his warheads from Cuba — resolved the Cuban missile crisis
- Congress authorized the Vietnam war after Johnson contended that American warships had been attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin on Aug. 4, 1964 - The attack never happened
- his often aloof and occasionally arrogant conduct left him with few allies inside the Pentagon when the war began to go wrong
- he listed reasons America lost the Vietnam War: a failure to understand the enemy, a failure to see the limits of high-tech weapons, a failure to tell the truth to the American people and a failure to grasp the nature of the threat of communism
- “War is so complex it’s beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend,” he concluded. “Our judgment, our understanding, are not adequate. And we kill people unnecessarily.”
Item 2: "Obama's Style Trumps Substance, Again" by Stephen M. Walt
- Russia diapproves of the US because - Bush administration abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2001, invaded Iraq in 2003, pressed forward with plans for missile defenses in Eastern Europe, cultivated close ties with several post-Soviet republics in Central Asia, and pushed NATO to accelerate membership for Georgia and Ukraine in 2008
- US disapproves Russia because - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule, his use of Russia’s oil and gas exports as an instrument of leverage, his none-too-transparent effort to re-establish a sphere of influence around Russia’s borders, and Moscow’s reluctance to help stop the Iranian nuclear programs
- Obama and his foreign-policy team understood that the United States could not continue to challenge Russia’s sensitivities on missile defense, NATO membership for Ukraine, etc., and still expect to get Russian help vis-à-vis Iran, North Korea, or Afghanistan
- Obama - “the arc of history shows us that governments which serve their own people survive and thrive; governments which serve only their own power do not.”
Item 3: "Oil Prices Need Government Supervision" by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy
- For two years the price of oil has been dangerously volatile, seemingly defying the accepted rules of economics. First it rose by more than $80 a barrel, then fell rapidly by more than $100 before doubling to its current level of around $70. In that time, however, there has been no serious interruption of supply.
- windfalls from brief price surges are offset by the consequent difficulties of planning national budgets and investment strategies
- International Energy Agency - cut its long-term forecast of oil consumption by almost a quarter
- We therefore call upon the International Organization of Securities Regulators to consider improving transparency and supervision of the oil futures markets in order to reduce damaging speculation
Item 4: "My Message to G8 Leaders" by Ban Ki-moon
- The last two years have witnessed a cascade of interconnected crises: financial panic, rising food and oil prices, climate shocks, a flu pandemic, and more
- G8 and other major emitters of greenhouse gases must intensify their work to seal a deal at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December
- G8 should take specific steps needed to honour long-standing but unfulfilled pledges of support to poor countries to help them achieve the millennium development goals
- G8 should focus urgent attention on the intensifying global hunger crisis - the world's hungry now number one billion
Item 5: "Seven Ways to Build a Cleaner Planet" by Tony Blair
- Breaking the Climate Deadlock project, a strategic partnership between my office and The Climate Group, shows how major reductions even by 2020 are achievable if we focus action on certain key technologies, deploy policies that have been proven to work, and invest now in developing those future technologies that will take time to mature
- 70 per cent of the reductions needed by 2020 can be achieved by investing in three areas: increasing energy efficiency, reducing deforestation, and use of lower-carbon energy sources
- Implementing just seven proven policies - renewable energy standards (say, feed-in tariffs or renewable portfolio standards); industry efficiency measures; building codes; vehicle efficiency standards; fuel carbon content standards; appliance standards, and policies for reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation - can deliver these reductions
Item 6: "Spiegel Interview with Henry Kissinger" by Der Spiegel
- The map of Europe which emerged from the Treaty of Versailles is, more or less, the map of Europe that exists today
- Any international system must have two key elements for it to work:
i. A certain equilibrium of power that makes overthrowing the system difficult and costly.
ii. A sense of legitimacy.
- The American view was that peace is the normal condition among states. To ensure lasting peace, an international system must be organized on the basis of domestic institutions everywhere, which reflect the will of the people, and that will of the people is considered always to be against war. Unfortunately, there is no historic evidence that this is true.
- Before World War I, Germany faced three major countries on its borders: Russia, France, and Britain. After Versailles, Germany faced a collection of smaller states on its eastern borders, against each of which it had a huge grievance but none of which was capable of resisting Germany alone
- Cynics treat values as equivalent and instrumental. Statesmen base practical decisions on moral convictions.
- The outcome can only be a two-state solution, and there seems to be substantial agreement on the borders of such a state
- I do not see any conflicts between such major countries, China, Russia, India, and the U.S., which will justify a military solution
- The relationship of China with the rest of the world is a lot more important in historic terms
05 July 2009
Fifth July Two Thousand Nine
Malaysiana
- Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin - Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) to continue developing its human capital to mould highly skilled officers and personnel
- AH1N1 - As of yesterday, 35 new cases have been reported, 24 of which were imported, bringing the total number in the country to 326 - including its first “second generation local case”, a child of the 242nd case
- Four Perak Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen have rejected their appointment to the state assembly’s select committee - Nga Kor Ming (DAP state secretary and Taiping MP) said the appointments were done without the knowledge and approval of the four
- The United States Ambassador, James Keith, has started a blog.
- Tan Sri Dr Hamid Pawanteh - out-going Senate president - in politics for 31 years - medical doctor, former town council member, former Kangar MP, former Deputy Speaker, former Perlis Menteri Besar - after politics, business (power plants)
- Datuk Wong Foon Meng - Deputy Senate president will take over as head of the Dewan Negara,tenure limited to two terms only - also the MCA secretary-general
- Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan - Kelantan State Local Government, Tourism and Culture Committee chairman - anticipating 4.5 million tourist arrivals this year
- Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin - Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) to continue developing its human capital to mould highly skilled officers and personnel
- AH1N1 - As of yesterday, 35 new cases have been reported, 24 of which were imported, bringing the total number in the country to 326 - including its first “second generation local case”, a child of the 242nd case
- Four Perak Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen have rejected their appointment to the state assembly’s select committee - Nga Kor Ming (DAP state secretary and Taiping MP) said the appointments were done without the knowledge and approval of the four
- The United States Ambassador, James Keith, has started a blog.
- Tan Sri Dr Hamid Pawanteh - out-going Senate president - in politics for 31 years - medical doctor, former town council member, former Kangar MP, former Deputy Speaker, former Perlis Menteri Besar - after politics, business (power plants)
- Datuk Wong Foon Meng - Deputy Senate president will take over as head of the Dewan Negara,tenure limited to two terms only - also the MCA secretary-general
- Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan - Kelantan State Local Government, Tourism and Culture Committee chairman - anticipating 4.5 million tourist arrivals this year
Fourth July Two Thousand Nine
Item 1: "The Wall Isn't Falling" by Fareed Zakaria
- The three most powerful forces in the modern world are democracy, religion, and nationalism
- Iraq-based Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is Iranian, probably more revered in the entire Shia world than any other ayatollah, and he is opposed to the basic doctrine of velayat-e faqih that created the Islamic Republic of Iran - His own view is that clerics should not be involved in politics, which is why he has steered clear of any such role in Iraq
Item 2: "The Pitfalls fo the Public Option" by N. Gregory Mankiw
- Consumer choice and honest competition are indeed the foundation of a successful market system, but they are usually achieved without a public provider
- A market participant with a dominant position can influence prices in a way that a small, competitive player cannot
Item 3: "Iran and Beyond" by Gen. Wesley Clark
- revolution in Iran in 1979 - the military as an institution dissolved and starting with or indicated by 5,000 Iranian air force cadets who just refused to follow orders and basically wouldn't support the government and basically let it collapse
Item 4: "Africa and the International Court" by Kofi Annan
- International Criminal Court - 108 states, including 30 African countries, representing the largest regional bloc among the member states - Five of the court’s 18 judges are African
- African opponents of the international court argue that it is fixated on Africa because its four cases so far all concern alleged crimes against African victims
- The I.C.C., as a court of last resort, acts only when national justice systems are unwilling or unable to do so
Item 5: "Russia Must Re-focus with Post-Imperial Eyes" by Zbigniew Brzezinski
- three central goals - first, to advance US-Russian co-operation in areas where our interests coincide - second, to emphasise the mutual benefits in handling disagreements between the two countries within internationally respected “rules of the game” - third, to help shape a geopolitical context in which Russia becomes increasingly conscious of its own interest in eventually becoming a genuinely post-imperial partner of the Euro-Atlantic community
- To the Russian leadership, the two long-term challenges to its power come from the US and China - Both countries would suffer grievously, while Russia would greatly benefit, if a US-Iranian crisis triggered a surge in energy prices
Item 6: "Just Do It" by Thomas L. Friedman
- The two greatest environmental presidents in American history were Teddy Roosevelt, who created our national park system, and Richard Nixon, whose administration gave us the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency - George Bush Sr. signed the 1993 Rio Treaty, to preserve biodiversity
- House cap-and-trade energy bill - goal of reducing U.S. carbon emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020
Item 7: "That '30s Show" by Paul Krugman
- Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs - take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole - the Obama stimulus plan aims to create 3 ½ million jobs by late next year
- Right now the risks associated with additional debt are much less than the risks associated with failing to give the economy adequate support
- The three most powerful forces in the modern world are democracy, religion, and nationalism
- Iraq-based Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is Iranian, probably more revered in the entire Shia world than any other ayatollah, and he is opposed to the basic doctrine of velayat-e faqih that created the Islamic Republic of Iran - His own view is that clerics should not be involved in politics, which is why he has steered clear of any such role in Iraq
Item 2: "The Pitfalls fo the Public Option" by N. Gregory Mankiw
- Consumer choice and honest competition are indeed the foundation of a successful market system, but they are usually achieved without a public provider
- A market participant with a dominant position can influence prices in a way that a small, competitive player cannot
Item 3: "Iran and Beyond" by Gen. Wesley Clark
- revolution in Iran in 1979 - the military as an institution dissolved and starting with or indicated by 5,000 Iranian air force cadets who just refused to follow orders and basically wouldn't support the government and basically let it collapse
Item 4: "Africa and the International Court" by Kofi Annan
- International Criminal Court - 108 states, including 30 African countries, representing the largest regional bloc among the member states - Five of the court’s 18 judges are African
- African opponents of the international court argue that it is fixated on Africa because its four cases so far all concern alleged crimes against African victims
- The I.C.C., as a court of last resort, acts only when national justice systems are unwilling or unable to do so
Item 5: "Russia Must Re-focus with Post-Imperial Eyes" by Zbigniew Brzezinski
- three central goals - first, to advance US-Russian co-operation in areas where our interests coincide - second, to emphasise the mutual benefits in handling disagreements between the two countries within internationally respected “rules of the game” - third, to help shape a geopolitical context in which Russia becomes increasingly conscious of its own interest in eventually becoming a genuinely post-imperial partner of the Euro-Atlantic community
- To the Russian leadership, the two long-term challenges to its power come from the US and China - Both countries would suffer grievously, while Russia would greatly benefit, if a US-Iranian crisis triggered a surge in energy prices
Item 6: "Just Do It" by Thomas L. Friedman
- The two greatest environmental presidents in American history were Teddy Roosevelt, who created our national park system, and Richard Nixon, whose administration gave us the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency - George Bush Sr. signed the 1993 Rio Treaty, to preserve biodiversity
- House cap-and-trade energy bill - goal of reducing U.S. carbon emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020
Item 7: "That '30s Show" by Paul Krugman
- Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs - take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole - the Obama stimulus plan aims to create 3 ½ million jobs by late next year
- Right now the risks associated with additional debt are much less than the risks associated with failing to give the economy adequate support
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