Europe

On February 1, 2010, New America welcomed Dr. Andreas Schockenhoff, for a discussion of German foreign policy in Afghanistan. In his discussion, Dr. Schockenhoff acknowledged that the war in Afghanistan was grossly unpopular in Germany. According to his figures, 80% of the German population is currently against the war. However, he and the German government were resolute in continuing the struggle. “We all want to leave Afghanistan,” he said, “but what kind of Afghanistan do we want to leave behind?” Dr.

"Europe's Promise is a timely and provocative book..."  - Foreign Affairs

"Europe's Promise should startle, inform, and galvanize Americans in raising the ante in favor of a political economy where people matter first." -Ralph Nader

This article was published as part of the "Building the Good Society" debate hosted by Social Europe Journal

As an American, I have been following this discussion with great interest. The predicament of social democracy strikes at the heart of several modern dilemmas that will be at the forefront of the twenty-first century. Much hangs in the balance.

On January 21, 2010, the New America Foundation hosted Steven Hill, director of the Political Reform Program at New America, to discuss his new book, Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age. The purpose of government today, Steven Hill stated, is to advance institutions that will create a high quality of life for our growing populations while simultaneously sustaining our planet.

On January 22, 2010, New America invited Steven Hill and Diana Furchtgott-Roth to debate whether the United States should adopt European-style reforms to revitalize the economy and bring a higher quality of life to the American people.

Twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall fell. And as soon as it did, a myth began to arise: that it was Ronald Reagan's uncompromising anti-communism that brought the Soviet Union to its knees. The myth's consequences have been immense: Again and again, post-Cold War hawks have invoked Reagan to oppose negotiations with America's enemies, and to justify the threat-if not the actual use-of force. There's just one problem: The myth is almost entirely false.

On the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall I think back to the electrified atmosphere on the streets of Berlin. I was there, watching throngs of East Germans swarm through border crossings. A Fulbright scholar and social anthropologist based in Warsaw in November 1989, I drove with a friend through gas-rationed Poland and East Germany to bear witness. Back then many of the excited East Germans I interviewed -- even some border guards -- looked to the United States as a beacon of democracy.

New America will be hosting two events with Steven Hill to discuss this book and Europes evolving leadership. Join us Thursday, January 21 at 12:15 p.m. and Friday, January 22 at Noon ET.

Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov's Russia and the Arabs (which should really be called The Soviet Union and the Arabs, since most of it deals with that period, one in which Moscow still had enormous influence in the Middle East) is the latest contribution to the annals of the international competition for influence and power. The book--by a Moscow insider who held key positions in the USSR's, and later Russia's, foreign-policy establishment--is a firsthand account informed by decades of experience of Middle East crises, from the Arab-Israeli wars to Iraq and beyond.

In the future, globalization will further weaken the nation-state. A long transition process toward global government will be, like the Middle Ages, a time of great insecurity. But Europe's governance structure will prevail, even in the United States. It will buy its way to peace and its model will be copied across the globe.