Europe & Central Asia Archives - Foreign Policy In Focus

Interview with Cynthia Schneider

by John Feffer | Mar 25, 2011

Cynthia P. Schneider teaches, publishes, and organizes initiatives in the field of cultural diplomacy, with a focus on relations with the Muslim world. She co-directs the Muslims on Screen and Television (MOST) initiative. She is also a specialist in 17^th-century Dutch art and served as the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands from 1998 to 2001. She spoke to Foreign Policy In Focus about working on the stereotyping of Muslims in American culture, engaging with the TV show 24, and watching the rise of Islamophobia in the Netherlands.

Europe’s Austerity: Like Something Out of the Brothers Grimm

by Conn Hallinan | Mar 17, 2011

EU’s narrative that high wages, early retirement, and generous benefits have led several countries to the verge of bankruptcy is nothing but a fairy tale.

The Battle for Greece

by Kia Mistilis | Mar 15, 2011

While the world’s attention is focused on the revolution in Egypt, street fighting in Libya, and the battle for Sana in Yemen, in democracy’s birthplace people are also taking to the streets, continuing to protest an austerity plan that many Greeks say will beggar them. On February 23, protesters conducted a 24-hour strike that brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of Athens.

How to Prevent Pakistani Anarchy

by M. Junaid Levesque-Alam | Mar 14, 2011

U.S. policymakers should learn from the events in the Middle East that the Muslim impulse for modernity and freedom is hindered, not helped, by Western military intervention. And they should learn soon. The U.S. “Af-Pak” war is accelerating the self-destruction of the world’s second largest, and only nuclear, Muslim country.

Days of Rage in Croatia

by Sabrina Peric | Mar 14, 2011

Thousands of people have gathered in the main square of the capital city demanding the resignation of the ruling government. This time it’s not Cairo or Tripoli, but Zagreb. For the past 16 days, the residents of Zagreb, along with citizens in towns across Croatia, have been demonstrating every other day. Their numbers seem to be growing. According to recent estimates by Croatian media, up to 100,000 people across the country have participated in the protests.

Putin’s Extravagant Proposal to Abolish Visas Echoes Gorbachev and Nukes

by Russ Wellen | Mar 12, 2011

Meanwhile, Moscow once again boasts more billionaires than New York City.

By Enabling India’s Nuke Program U.S. Shares Blame for Pakistan’s

by Conn Hallinan | Mar 9, 2011

By enabling India to have its nuclear cake and eat it too — enough nuclear fuel for weapons as well as energy — the U.S. also fuels Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons expansion.

What the Army Thinks the Taliban Would Do With Data on Genitourinary Injuries

by Russ Wellen | Mar 6, 2011

The U.S. army doesn’t put some of the dirtiest fighting ever past the Taliban.

Left Bares Its Claws in Irish Vote

by Conn Hallinan | Mar 2, 2011

If the Irish can come up with a strategy to resist shifting the financial crisis onto the backs of those least able to pay for it, that might be a blueprint for other countries ravaged by debt and economic malaise.

Raymond Davis Incident Shows How Tangled U.S.-Pakistan Web Is

by Conn Hallinan | Feb 28, 2011

Raymond Davis’s shootings in self defense shoot went beyond not only preventive, but preemptive. Conn Hallinan at the Foreign Policy in Focus blog Focal Points.