The Ebola virus has created quite a stir in the US–quite unnecessarily, since it is not a highly contagious disease. But the US Defense Department has long worried about people transforming the virus into a weapon, and it has sponsored research into a vaccine and treatment for a number of years. Indeed, the serum that has been used by the two Americans who were infected was developed partially through public funds. The future development of biological weaponry is a true nightmare for world politics since there is no way for such a weapon to be used for specific tactical purposes other than to kill people. Killing people is not a useful political objective.
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has had a very difficult few months. To his credit, he has not given up despite all the setbacks, but American foreign policy as a whole lacks clarity and focus. In large part, this malaise is due to the fact that many countries are trying to take advantage of what they perceive to be a vacuum in the world order. But the problem is that the US does not really know what to do with its power, nor does it have a vision of how the world order should be shaped. This problem is not one simply for the US; it is, indeed, a problem for the whole world.
We will be assessing the Gaza War for some time, and it would be a serious mistake to come to any conclusions too soon. The Economist has long been one of the staunchest supporters of the state of Israel and it is well known for its substantive analysis of contemporary events. It offers a tentative assessment of the effects of the war on global attitudes toward Israel. American attitudes toward Israel are hardly representative of other views in the world.
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