World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

I try not to link to New York Times articles because of the paywall, but Floyd Norris has written a very provocative essay which has been a strong, unspoken undercurrent to the entire European economic crisis: that Germany maintains its hard-line position because those policies benefit Germany at the expense of its partners in the eurozone.  In essence, the argument is that Germany is making sure that all the possible private losses within Germany are shifted to the governments of the indebted countries.  In addition, the weakening of the euro benefits German exporters.  While no one should underestimate the extent to which German history dictates German policies (the hyperinflation of 1933 and the costs of reunification in 1992), there is a large element of truth to the alternative explanation.

The political situation in Egypt seems even more precarious.  The dissolution of the Parliament raises all sorts of questions about who will write the new constitution, and the military has ordered new regulations designed to stifle dissent prior to the elections next week.   This essay in Foreign Policy is particularly pessimistic about Egypt’s future.