By Fareed Zakaria

If you look at Egypt moving forward, there's a great deal of emphasis placed on the various political parties and what they may stand for and what they're going to do. But we have to remember: The real obstacle to democracy in Egypt continues to be the people who run Egypt — a military dictatorship. FULL POST

Editor's Note: The following text is from GlobalPost, which provides views — important, moving or just odd — from around the world.

By Justin McCurry, GlobalPost

In one respect, the decision by Tokyo Disneyland to allow a gay couple to hold their "wedding" at the theme park is a sign of progress in a country that has, until recently, largely ignored the issue of same-sex unions.

But some campaigners have argued that leaving it to Mickey Mouse to give his blessing to Koyuki Higashi and her partner, Hiroko Masuhara — in a strictly symbolic ceremony — is also a mark of how far Japan has to go before it affords the same rights to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as it does to heterosexual couples.

FULL POST

Editor's Note: Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a GPS contributor. You can find all his blog posts here. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Soner Cagaptay.

By Soner Cagaptay, Special to CNN

When the Syrian uprising began last spring, Turkey initially stayed behind Washington. It shied away from criticizing the regime of Bashar al-Assad, instead asking al-Assad to reform.

When Damascus refused, however, Ankara moved ahead of Washington, taking an aggressive posture against al-Assad and suggesting it was ready to take action to force him to step down.

Recently, though, Ankara has backpedaled, abandoning its aggression and sliding back toward Washington’s position. With this, Turkey has entered the third phase of its Syrian policy, falling nearly in line with Washington’s policy of “wait and see and hope for an orderly transition — for now.”

What could explain Turkey’s new posture? Many factors come to mind, from the fear of getting bogged down in a war with a neighboring country to being left alone to fight al-Assad. But one key factor is its fear of two Kurdistans.

FULL POST

When the shuttle program ended almost a year ago, America became unable to send a man to space, so now the U.S. has to rely on others, and that means the Russians. And that can be a little scary.

In the past year Russia's space program has had a series of close calls and even crashes. So before a recent liftoff, Russia invoked a higher power. OK. But that is far from the only superstition that comes into play at Russia's Cosmodrome.

Tradition says that the crew gets haircuts two days before launch and they drink a glass of champagne on launch day. And the final superstition, as Yuri Gagarin did before he became the first man in space in 1961, they relieve themselves on the wheels of the bus that carries them to the launch pad.

Let's see if it works.

Related: Unmanned private rocket launches

Egyptian voters will be casting their ballots Wednesday and Thursday in the country’s first free presidential election.

There are 12 candidates looking to fill the vacancy left by Hosni Mubarak, who was forced out in February 2011. Since then, the Egyptian military has been in charge of the country.

Here’s a closer look at the leading contenders:
FULL POST

Editor's Note: The following text is from GlobalPost, which provides views — important, moving or just odd — from around the world.

By Paul Ames, GlobalPost

French President Francois Hollande thinks he’s found a solution to the eurozone crisis: the name’s Bonds. Euro bonds.

Unfortunately, Angela Merkel’s still playing Dr. No.

FULL POST

In the last few years, no one person has embodied the cause to end austerity as much as Paul Krugman. The Nobel Prize-winning economist is a professor at Princeton University, a columnist for the New York Times, and author of the new book "End This Depression Now!"

In the above clip from "Fareed Zakaria GPS," Krugman weighs in on the economic plans of President Obama and Mitt Romney. One, he says, is talking economic sense while the other one is talking "utter nonsense."

FULL POST

Editor’s note: Geneive Abdo is director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute in Washington. The views in this article are solely those of Geneive Abdo.

By Geneive Abdo — Special to CNN

Iran is set for nuclear talks Wednesday with members of the U.N. Security Council, and the Obama administration, as well as some Iranian and European Union officials, expressed optimism that a compromise will be reached.

But it is useful to examine Israel’s long-term objectives for a bit of a reality check.

FULL POST

Everyone is worried that Greece might default on its national debt. That's really not news. By one estimate, in the 180 years since it gained its independence from the Ottomans in 1832, the country has been in default or restructuring for half this period. The news is that this time, Germany is willing to bail Greece out.

Throughout the euro-zone crisis, it has been conventional wisdom to regard the Germans as narrow-minded, ungenerous and dogmatically wedded to prescriptions of austerity to treat Europe's problems. These criticisms are vastly overstated.

Read more about Germany's response and my column at TIME

The following is an edited transcript of a recent interview with Fareed Zakaria on "John King USA," talking about the NATO summit in Chicago and NATO's relevance in the world today.

KING: This year's NATO summit is in Chicago. And topping the official agenda is the transition in Afghanistan, but there are other giant issues for the 34 heads of state attending.

ZAKARIA: The truth is NATO was a defensive alliance. It was designed for, really, to protect against Russia, against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And ever since 1990 when all that ended, it's been flailing around looking for something to do.

But it is a very useful time when all these heads of state, heads of government get together, and there's always something or the other on the agenda that's pretty crucial. FULL POST