Guess who is this year’s messenger of peace? Why it’s Vladimir Putin. In September, an obscure Chinese cultural organization revealed the finalists for the second annual Confucius Peace Prize, an award that suddenly popped out of nowhere last year after imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. The …
Europe
Israel and Iran: Covert Warfare Raises Risks of Retaliation, and Conflagration
If Iran’s leaders actually believe their official insistence that last weekend’s blast at the Bid Ganeh Revolutionary Guard Corps missile base was an accident, the event is unlikely to make any difference to regional stability. But if Iran, instead, believes claims — and widely held suspicions in Tehran — that the blast, which …
DSK Is Done: Latest Scandal Nixes Prospect of a Return to French Public Life
At this point, writing an update on the continuing travails of former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn seems a bit like flogging a deader than dead horse. But because unfolding developments appear to be delivering the coup de grace to any hopes Strauss-Kahn had of returning to public life–and reportedly …
Whither the European (Dis)Union?
Is significantly greater integration the surest way to prevent both the euro and even the entire European Union from blowing apart? Or is EU federation–and the basic powers national governments now wield being weakened in the process–exactly the kind of radical fusion certain to send countries jealous of their sovereignty fleeing …
Europe’s Debt Tragicomedy: Horror Show Turns Into Shambolic Farce
There are occasions when even the scariest of movies will push the atmosphere of dread, danger, and doom a bit too far, and leave the scenario of improbable horror and panic feeling just stupid. That moment has arrived in Nightmare On Euro Street, as people who watched Europe’s escalating crisis through their fingers in terror begin …
Nuke Report Unlikely to Break the Stalemate, Could Iran Be the New Cuba?
Game changer? Hardly. As the dust settles on this week’s release of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report on Iran, it’s become clear that pre-release hype from Western officials that it would produce a dramatic shift in the international standoff over that country’s nuclear program appears to be wishful thinking. …
James Murdoch Denies “Mafia Boss” Comparison, Blames Former Editor Over Phone Hacking
This morning, as James Murdoch faced bruising questions from parliamentarians investigating phone hacking at News International, he had no choice but to stare at a garish red painting. Before him hung a twenty-foot canvas splattered with deep reds and maroons; behind him, an equally brash work of art in crimson and scarlet. For a man …
Thwarted at the U.N., Is Palestinian Leader Abbas Headed Off Into the Sunset?
President Mahmoud Abbas’ attempt to persuade the U.N. Security Council to admit a state of Palestine as a full member of the international body has, all too predictably, hit a wall. The technical U.N. committee to which the issue was referred , not surprisingly, failed to reach a consensus (because there’s no consensus among Council …
Why China Is Right Not to Yield to Pressure on Iran
Following the dissemination of the IAEA’s latest report on Iran’s nuclear program, we’ve now entered the predictable phase of hand-waving uproar. Short of a genuine smoking gun, the IAEA report has still emboldened those who seek tough action on Tehran. Days of war talk in Israel have padded calls in the West for a far tougher …
Sarkozy to Obama: “I Cannot Bear Netanyahu. He’s a Liar.”
Despite the protective efforts of some of the courtlier members of the Fourth Estate, what the President of France said to the president of the United States about the Prime Minister of Israel was on front pages Wednesday, along with what the American president said in reply.
“I cannot bear Netanyahu. He’s a liar,” Nicolas Sarkozy …
U.N. Body Accuses Iran of Nuclear Weapons Research, But Can Military Action Stop Tehran?
The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has finally lent its imprimatur to the suspicion that Iran is using its atomic energy program to put the means to build nuclear weapons within its reach. That’s the upshot of Tuesday’s report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran, making it the agency’s harshest finding yet on Iran’s …
France’s New Austerity Measures: Is It Too Late to Put Out the Fire?
French Prime Minister François Fillon unveiled another batch of debt-reduction measures Monday—and in so doing officially removed the word “austerity” from the blacklist of political correctness to which it had been banished. Instead Fillon rehabilitated the term as the weapon capable of preventing contagion of the euro zone …
An Independent Scotland? Q&A with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond
For this story on Scottish independence out in this week’s International dead tree edition of TIME, I sat down on Sept. 30 with Alex Salmond at Bute House, the official residence of the Scottish First Minister. The following are excerpts from the more than hour-long interview.
TIME: The elections…
AS: We won.
Your …