BERLIN (via Washington) — My colleague Constanze Stelzemueller wrote this piece in the Financial Times about Germany’s recent state elections in Hesse and Lower Saxony before they happened. It was a critical test for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, and the results were, well, critical. (Apologies to the Economist for riffing on their headline.)

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BELGRADE, Serbia — Some colleagues and I just returned from a brief but enlightening trip to Moldova and Transnistria, January 21-23. We wanted to learn more about the complex political, social, and economic situations and how our programs (BST and BTD) can assist those working to improve them. A bit of background: After the collapse [...]

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BRUSSELS — The publication of this article in the People’s Daily caused an interesting ripple of reactions, not least in Africa itself. Although China professes ideological neutrality in its foreign policy, its officials and a number of Chinese intellectuals are still eager to leap on any evidence that €˜Western-style democracy’ is €˜unsuitable’ in any number [...]

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WASHINGTON — Once again, this is far from my expertise, but it’s very interesting to see a New York Times blog post about a few stores in New York City starting to accept the euro for purchases. It is certainly common throughout much of the world to see dollar-denominated prices and dollars accepted as readily [...]

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PARIS — In a press conference today, French President Sarkozy explained further his new”policy of civilization.” Background: the President is losing ground in polls, the primary concern of the French being the improvement of their standard of living, which is not in sight. Facing pessimistic forecasts of next year’s growth rate (less than 2%), energy [...]

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WASHINGTON — Two weeks ago, Richard Haass expressed doubts about the future efficacy of transatlantic cooperation in addressing international security challenges. He’s joining a popular bandwagon. In the lead up to the American presidential election, analysts from across the political landscape are grinding a rusty axe that we’ve heard year after year since the end [...]

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