The violence continues in Syria, with little sign that Assad is thinking about stepping down. The Arab League deadline to Assad is Sunday, 4 December. Interestingly, Russia and China have isolated themselves from the Arab League with their refusal to consider sanctions–an index of how seriously both countries take the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs. The other outlier in this standoff is, of course, Iran, who stands to lose an important ally if Assad is forced out of office. The chess pieces are being moved every day.
As I have indicated in class, there are many issues surrounding the status of labor in the world. The Guardian, a reliably lefty British newspaper, published a very dismal article about who produces the toys for Christmas and the conditions in which those toys are made. Don’t get carried away by the fact that the story addresses the status of labor in China–the article could have been written about a lot of places in the world.
The question concerning German objectives in the current economic crisis in the eurozone is whether it will choose to exert hegemonic-like leadership. It seems very clear that the internal domestic politics of Germany push it away from this role. It is unclear, however, whether Germany can prosper without taking the necessary action to preserve the euro. It’s a classic case of short vs. long term interests.
I am posting this article about how to use Google search more effectively as a public service. There won’t be any questions on the quiz about this particular article.
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