UP-FRONT SECOND LOOK NUGGET FROM YESTERDAY!!
The Broken Consensus: America's Contested Primacy (Eric Edelman) from World Affairs Journal
I'm reposting this one from yesterday -- more than most analyses I've seen lately concerning the "America in decline" narrative, this one presents a very nuanced, cold-eyed picture of America's major competitors and how they stack up against the US in some key categories.
"American decline will not be determined purely by economic gains or losses. The future shape of the international system will depend more on broader measures of national power than percentage shares of global production. Factors like GDP, population, defense spending, and a variety of other criteria should also be taken into account. The key variable would seem to be the efficiency and effectiveness with which nations convert resources into usable hard and soft power. At least as important as the objective measures of national power are the subjective assessments by international statesmen and military leaders of the international distribution of power. Those judgments are inevitably affected by a range of cultural, psychological, bureaucratic, and political factors. It is worth asking how the putative competitors stack up on some of these dimensions."
UP-FRONT NUGGET FOR DEFICIT HAWKS!!
The British Economy: Heading South – and Fast from the Editorial Board of the Guardian [of the UK]
"With the economic outlook so bleak, isn't it time to rethink the coalition's austerity plans?"
For those who think we need to deal with the deficit NOW, fire alarms should be going off given the latest numbers out of the UK. Get the US on a steady path out of the recession first.
Now, back to our regular nuggets:
Watching Egypt (but Not on Al Jazeera) (Marc Lynch) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The images and stories of protests today have been impressive, both in numbers and in energy and enthusiasm. The Egyptians are self-consciously emulating the Tunisian protests, seeking to capitalize on the new mood within the Arab world."
Arab Rulers Fear Spread of Democracy Fever from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"In the wake of Tunisia's mostly peaceful revolution, Arab leaders are worried that their young, frustrated populations might follow suit. While the West sits back and watches, regimes stress stability over genuine democracy and hope to calm simmering discontent with cash."
In Egypt, it's 'C' for Christian and 'M' for Muslim (Lynx Qualey) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"From kindergarten Egyptian citizens are branded as Christians or Muslims – a practice that many feel deepens divisions."
Good News About Israel and Palestine (Really) (Jeffrey Goldberg and Hussein Ibish] from the New York Times
"We tend to forget, amid the welter of commentary about Palestinian incitement and Israeli belligerence, that we have recently seen startling shifts in both Israeli and Palestinian attitudes on the need for compromise."
These authors touch on something that most commentators seem to miss about the relationship as it currently stands between Israel and Palestine: no matter how much each side dislikes the other [both individually and collectively], once you've trashed the latest "peace talks", where is everyone left? Right back exactly where they were. All the other options: do nothing and allow the situation to further decline, fight, another intifada, etc., etc. have ALL been tried and failed and even left things in worse shape than before. And so all there is to do is to SIT BACK DOWN again and talk. I think Obama and Abbas get this central dynamic more than the Israelis -- but I think it will dawn on even them soon enough.
Russia: Rewriting History (Cameron and Asmus) from Chatham House [of London]
For those not familiar with this source, Chatham House is like the Brookings Institution of the UK.
"Russian policymakers have often viewed the historical narrative of their country in ways contrary to actors in the west-nowhere is this more prevalent than in the erroneous line of thinking that describes the 1990s as a decade of purposeful humiliation by the United States and European Union."
It has become a very convenient political narrative for pols across the ideological spectrum in Russia. It is becoming the default position of repressive regimes everywhere when faced with internal crisis [at times not without some justification]: blame America. However, this perennial chestnut doesn't work in Russia's case. Having read a lot on this over the last two years, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton did A LOT to try and steer the former Soviet Union towards a soft economic landing and did what they could to bolster the global and economic cred of both Gorbachev and later Yeltsin, often LONG after their sell-by dates. I think it's understandable that Russians accustomed to the "super-power" label felt embarrassed given the chaos of the 1990s -- but that was not the US's fault. Where the "humiliation" piece comes in (and may have more justification) was Clinton and Bush II's needlessly provocative expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics. Putin and his reactionary supporters have had a field day with this. I understand some of the rationale: power abhors a vacuum, and states like Poland and the Czech Republic were clamoring for it. But to promote NATO membership for the Ukraine as Bush II did was needlessly provocative and was done with an "in your face" quality towards Russia that was bound to produce this reaction.
The State of Obama is Strong (Jonathan Capehart) from the Washington Post
"The President Obama you see tonight will be different from the one you saw on Nov. 3. That Obama was a little glum and introduced into our political lexicon the now-worn-out gerund "shellacking" to describe the beat-down he and the Democrats suffered at the polls in the midterm elections. No, the Obama you will see tonight will be strong. Really strong."
Obama Gets Up off the Canvas (Clarence Page) from the Chicago Tribune
"At this midpoint of his first term, it is too early to say what President Barack Obama's legacy will be. We don't even know whether he will get a second term. But we're beginning to see more clearly the outlines of what that legacy might be: In a contentious age of left-versus-right, he's a center-left pragmatist — and he's beginning to make it pay off."
What the Speech Has Already Done (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"The president won't give his annual State of the Union address until later tonight, but in an important way, the speech has already worked. For the past week or so, news report after news report has dutifully relayed the argument the president is planning to offer tonight: America needs to be competitive going forward, and to be competitive going forward, it needs to invest in things like infrastructure, R&D and education, not just reduce the deficit."
Obama Tries Out Bill Clinton's Message (Peter Beinart) from the Daily Beast
"Facing a Republican majority, the president had to drop his campaign-era themes for this State of the Union and pick up Clinton’s—talking about “winning the future” to underscore his energy and youth. And it worked."
Poll: High Marks for Obama's State of the Union Speech from CBS News
"An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of the overall message in President Obama's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News poll of speech watchers."
Democracy Corps: Swing Voters Reaction to Obama's SOTU Speech from the Democratic Strategist
"Dial testing and follow-up discussions with 50 swing voters in Denver, Colorado showed that President Obama's 2011 State of the Union struck a powerful chord as he described his economic vision for the country. Following the speech, voters gave the President impressive assessments on key economic measures and were especially drawn to the President's emphasis on three of the themes he emphasized in his speech; innovation, education, and America's competitiveness in the future. As one of these swing voters put it, "the future belongs to the people who make the what and the how.""
Anderson Cooper Wallops Bachmann For 'Flunking History' (VIDEO) from TalkingPointsMemo
"Michele Bachmann was the subject of Anderson Cooper's "Keeping Them Honest" segment last night, for her comments last weekend that to America's diversity-conscious first settlers, "it didn't matter the color of their skin, it didn't matter their language, it didn't matter their economic status." In her remarks, Bachmann also said that "we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States.""
Normally I don't post stuff spouted by the Palins and the Bachmanns of this world -- the MSM does just fine with these kinds of verbal 'banana peel' moments. But this was too good (or too stupid) to pass up. Thank you Anderson!
INDIA CULTURE NUGGET!!
Wealthy Indians Revive Ancient Fire Ritual (Rama Lakshmi) from Washington Post
"In this rapidly modernizing country, new money is also reviving old traditions. A group of mostly urban professionals has teamed up to help conduct the fire ritual this spring in a village that last witnessed it 35 years ago."
BOOK NUGGET!!
Daniel Yergin's Much-Awaited Sequel to The Prize from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The Gulf War also provided unexpected subtext for Daniel Yergin, whose masterwork history of oil, The Prize, was coincidentally published a few months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and became a No. 1 best-selling non-fiction title. The next year it won a Pulitzer Prize."
The Prize was a very timely book when it came out -- and it looks like the sequel will be JUST as timely!
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