Editor’s note: Salman Shaikh is the director of the Brookings Doha Center. He previously served as special assistant to the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Salman Shaikh.
By Salman Shaikh, Special to CNN
Will Kofi Annan’s latest proposal for a political transition end the conflict in Syria? The short answer is no, not in its current form.
Syria is now, in the words of Bashar al-Assad, in a “state of war” as fighting intensifies between government forces and opposition fighters. While the diplomats have talked and talked, Syria has entered the point of no return.
The effects are plain for all to see: a regime increasingly unrestrained in waging war on its own people; a militarized opposition that is more effective and less controllable; and a region, as the downing of the Turkish military plane illustrated, that is more unpredictable and combustible.
It is under these conditions that Annan jettisoned Plan A, which sought to end the violence by placing unarmed U.N. observers in a war zone under the dual authority of the Syrian government and the U.N. Security Council. He now seeks to unite key international players such as Russia, the United States, China and the European Union by proposing Plan B: a Syrian national unity Cabinet that would include government and opposition members and exclude those who would undermine it. (Which is the closest Annan can get, without really saying it, that al-Assad would be excluded in the future government.)
But there is little hope among Syria’s opposition that this will work.
The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Obama's health care law is constitutional, but that won't end the debate over ObamaCare and what to do about the health care system.
For many, the debate has shifted from the courtroom to the campaign trail. Presidential historian and author Douglas Brinkley talked to CNN about how the Supreme Court decision will play into the 2012 U.S. election and how history will regard the vote. FULL POST
Editor’s note: Javid Ahmad, a native of Kabul, is program coordinator with the Asia program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Mashail Malik, a native of Islamabad, is a graduate student at the University of Chicago. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Javid Ahmad and Mashail Malik.
By Javid Ahmad and Mashail Malik, Special to CNN
Tensions that flare between Pakistan's ineffective civilian government and influential judiciary reached an all-time high last week when the country’s Supreme Court disqualified Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from holding office.
The unprecedented ruling came less than two months after Gilani was charged with contempt for his refusal to ask the Swiss government to reopen corruption charges facing President Asif Ali Zardari. It was followed days later by parliament electing a replacement, Raja Pervez Ashraf, who has also been accused of corruption in the past.
These recent developments signify the deep rift between Pakistan's different internal institutions. Pakistan’s civilian government, the powerful military, the increasingly active judiciary, and the many opposition groups in the country are juggling varied and often deeply conflicting agendas.
One thing these internal forces have in common is that each wants to be at the center stage of Pakistan's political structure, and each wants to win the frustrated population's support. The cost of this power struggle, however, seems to be given little consideration by the players involved.
All this on "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
On "Fareed Zakaria GPS" this week: U.S. politics, journalist Nicholas Kristof on his unprecedented access to rural Iran; and a rare bright spot in the eurozone - Estonia’s President Toomas Hendrik Ilves explains how his country is the only one in the eurozone with a budget surplus.
Also: Michael Bloomberg. What should America do about obesity? The New York City mayor explains why he’s taking matters into his own hands, starting with the size of soda cups in theaters.
BLOOMBERG: I don’t think that we should restrict you from drinking full sugared drinks. I do think we have an obligation to explain to you that that is not good for your health. And one of the ways to explain is we’re going to require that restaurants and movie theaters, if you want to drink more than 16 ounces, they sell it to you, but they sell it to you in multiple containers, that no container should be bigger than 16 ounces.
ZAKARIA: But you’re regulating business. There are a lot of ... Republicans who say this is the nanny state.
BLOOMBERG: Time out. They just say that. ... Let’s assume there’s a building with asbestos in it. Do you really think what they mean is we should let you go into that building and send your kids into that school with asbestos in the air? I don’t think so. We regulate and protect the health of lots of people in lots of different ways.
– All that, plus Bloomberg weighs in on politics, the economy and the ongoing Rio+20 summit.
Watch more in the video above and from these excerpts from the show: FULL POST
By Fareed Zakaria
We tend to think of dictators as all-powerful leaders who act with naked cruelty and impunity. Think of Bashar al Assad in Syria. Or, for a celluloid reminder, think of Sacha Baron Cohen as Gen. Admiral Aladeen, a North African despot.
But the film "The Dictator" — and our imagination of dictators — is getting outdated. The new dictator is more evolved and more attuned to how people think.
A new book highlights that trend. It's called "The Dictator's Learning Curve" by William Dobson.
Dictators have gotten smart, Dobson writes, to keep pace with changes in technology. Old-school oppressors like Mao, Pol Pot or Idi Amin could keep their atrocities relatively secret. That's not possible today. If a dictator tried to orchestrate a mass killing and keep it secret, he'd likely fail. It would end up on YouTube. FULL POST
 |
Post by: |
Editor's note: Nader Hashemi is director of the Center for Middle East Studies and an assistant professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. He is the author of "Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies." The views expressed in this article are solely those of Nader Hashemi.
By Nader Hashemi, Special to CNN
Egypt suffered a political earthquake Thursday when the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court effectively dissolved the democratically elected parliament and ruled that Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister can remain a presidential candidate.
These events have been widely interpreted as a “judicial coup,” the start of a “counter-revolution” and “the end of Egypt’s Arab Spring.”
While the situation is still in flux and the future is unknown, there is one claim can be made with certainty: this is a naked power grab by the country’s ruling military.
All this on "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
On "Fareed Zakaria GPS" this week: It’s all about the economy. Fareed weighs in on why Mitt Romney is wrong to say he’ll cut taxes on his first day in office; a debate on Europe with Robert Skidelsky versus Niall Ferguson; and environmental author Bjorn Lomborg on why next week's Rio+20 summit will likely be a waste of time. Also: The new dictator has evolved and gotten smarter.
Also: What to do about the European Union? London’s colorful, conservator Mayor Boris Johnson has a simple answer. Break it up.
"What would be great would be, I think, if the European leaders could face up to the reality, shrug off their egos, shrug off all their political capital that Europe has collectively invested in this project, and say, look, we made a mistake," he tells Fareed.
Watch more in the video above and from these excerpts from the show: FULL POST
By Fareed Zakaria
A day after Governor Scott Walker won his recall election, the New York Times wrote, "The biggest political lesson from Wisconsin may be that the overwhelming dominance of money on the Republican side will continue to haunt Democrats." Democrats have drawn much the same conclusion. "You've got a handful of self-interested billionaires who are trying to leverage their money across the country," said David Axelrod, Barack Obama's senior campaign strategist. "Does that concern me? Of course that concerns me."
But then how to explain the landslide victories in San Jose and San Diego of ballot measures meant to cut public-sector retirees' benefits? What should concern Axelrod far more is that on the central issue of the recall–the costs of public-sector employees–the Democratic Party is wrong on the substance, clinging to its constituents rather than doing the right thing.
Warren Buffett calls the costs of public-sector retirees a "time bomb." They are the single biggest threat to the U.S.'s fiscal health. If the U.S. is going to face a Greek-style crisis, it will not be at the federal level but rather with state and local governments.
Read more about the staggering numbers and why this has happened in my TIME column
|
|
Post by: |
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
Washington’s ties with Ankara have improved significantly in recent years thanks to a personal relationship between President Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two leaders have been in frequent contact, building a rapport that has translated into closer Turkish support for the U.S., including Ankara’s 2011 decision to participate in NATO’s crucial missile defense project.
Yet a crisis could be waiting in Syria.
Editor's note: Bruce Stokes is the director of the Pew Research Center’s Global Economic Attitudes, which released a new survey on Wednesday. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Bruce Stokes.
By Bruce Stokes, Special to CNN
A recurring theme of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s attacks on President Barack Obama has been that America’s stature in the world has declined under Obama’s stewardship. In January, after winning the New Hampshire primary, Romney charged that “(Obama) believes that America’s role as leader in the world is a thing of the past.” In late May, President Obama pushed back. In a commencement address to the graduates of the Air Force Academy he asserted: “Let's start by putting aside the tired notion that says our influence has waned, that America is in decline.”
The presidential campaign promises more of this to and fro as each candidate attempts to seize the high ground as the champion of American triumphalism. The anti-Americanism around the world during the Bush era profoundly challenged Americans’ self-image. Romney seems intent on convincing voters that the bad old days of Ugly America are returning thanks to Obama. The president implies that the Obama-mania that swept much of the world in the wake of his election in 2008 remains a positive asset for the United States.
A new global survey released Wednesday shows both presidential contenders are right. And both are wrong. FULL POST
All this on "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
On "Fareed Zakaria GPS" this week: How America's shale gas revolution will change all of geopolitics, inside Rwanda’s transformation with President Paul Kagame and - in a preview to our special, "The GPS Roadmap for Making Immigration Work" - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on why the U.S. immigration strategy is "national suicide."
Also: Rahm Emanuel. The 2012 election boils down to two different people, with two different views of how to shape America. Rahm Emanuel is the mayor of Chicago, but in his previous job as White House Chief of Staff, he got to know President Obama pretty well. What are his thoughts?
"Who is going to fight for who in that Oval Office? And the auto industry, the financial industry, the housing - Mitt Romney said let it bottom out. To the president, those are people holding onto their entire American dream, as they see it," Emanuel tells Fareed. "And they're really different people with different experiences with different views about how to shape the future of this country. And I think that's going to be the fundamental core piece of what this election is about."
Watch more in the video above and from these excerpts from the show. FULL POST
A prime-time special: "Global Lessons: The GPS Roadmap for Making Immigration Work" debuts on CNN at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 10.
As the American economy sags, the race for the presidency gets tighter - except in one dimension. Hispanic Americans continue to support Barack Obama by an astonishing 61%-to-27% margin. Were Obama to win, it might well be because of his attitudes on one issue: immigration. But it is an issue on which he will be unable to enact any of his preferences, let alone those policies that many Latinos support. The Republican Party has taken a tough stand on the topic. Democrats have their own bright lines. That means America's immigration system is likely to stay as it is right now - utterly broken.
We think of ourselves as the world's great immigrant society, and of course, for most of the country's history, that has been true. But something fascinating has happened over the past two decades. Other countries have been transforming themselves into immigrant societies, adopting many of America's best ideas and even improving on them. The result: the U.S. is not as exceptional as it once was, and its immigration advantage is lessening.
Read more at TIME.com about lessons the U.S. can learn from other countries
|
|
Post by: |
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
