The March rally in global equities has been underpinned by the massive policy response from governments around the world.   How ironic, then, that the very policies promoting global growth – fiscal spending, tax breaks, bank bailouts, etc. – could ultimately be diluted by government initiatives supportive of protectionism. Protectionism has become a growth industry, [...]

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ANKARA — An op-ed written by Prof. Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs,   in the Serbian daily Politika under the title”Turkey and Serbia Key Countries in the Balkans” gives hope that Turkey may be set to strengthen the Balkan dimension of its foreign policy. Turkey has a new foreign policy understanding that aims [...]

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Earlier this year, Moldova has been shaken by protests against the manner of conduct, and implicitely against results, of parliamentary elections in April. The main complaint was the inaccuracy of voters’ lists, with deceased, people living abroad and unknown persons artificially increasing the number of voters. This gross irregularity, combined with the control of the [...]

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Central and Eastern European leaders’ letter to President Obama provoked a strong reaction throughout the region, showing the depth and potency of the underlying sentiment. The US administration would be wrong to ignore it. Yesterday a letter written by a group of prominent Central European politicians and analysts was presented at the German Marshall Fund [...]

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Francois Lafond, the director of the GMF Paris office, was interviewed by France 24 about Obama’s recent visit to Africa. To watch the full interview please visit this link: Fracois Lafond on France 24 (In French)

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After years of neglecting the links between farming, insecurity and poverty, last week G8 leaders committed to shifting development policy away from food aid toward food production in the world’s poorest countries. They seek to address the negative fallout from declining foreign direct investment, exports, and remittance flows and the rising fragility in these states. [...]

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Senior transatlantic fellow David J. Kramer appeared as a guest on France 24. Kramer analyzes President Obama’s recent visit to Russia and what the discussions mean for the future of US-Russian relations.

To see the complete interview please visit this link: David J. Kramer on France 24.

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On July 6-7, as part of GMF’s on-going disemmination of the Transatlantic Taskforce on Development, I had the privilege of engaging with over 100 business and policy leaders from Africa at the Commonwealth Business Council’s G8 Africa Business Forum in London. In my remarks to the group, I urged G8 leaders and their counterparts in other nations to refocus on energizing the private sector in Africa to become the primary source of economic growth and poverty alleviation for the continent. Nonetheless, it is likely that G8 leaders will once again fall short on fulfilling promises on development for the poor.

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Senior transatlantic fellow Jim Kolbe was interviewed by the France 24 television news network on July 10. He discusses Obama’s choice to visit Ghana, economic progress, and what good governance means to Africa. To watch the complete interview please click on the link below: Jim Kolbe on France 24

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Despite promises by European governments and the Obama administration to conclude a global climate agreement later this year, the odds of a major breakthrough in December at the Copenhagen climate conference appear to be shrinking.   The official negotiating text for the envisioned Copenhagen agreement is hopelessly complex and riddled with brackets nations have inserted [...]

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