Foreign affairs

The US, Pakistan and that dysfunctional relationship

May 25, 2012 7:25 pm by Geoff Dyer

This was the week when the US and Pakistan were supposed to start patching things up. Instead, it has ended in a new round of mutual recriminations, including a rare bipartisan bout of indignation from the US Senate.

Just as the US and Nato are trying to sketch out long-term strategy to keep Afghanistan stable once most troops leave at the end of 2014, the never-ending downward spiral in US-Pakistan ties is casting those plans into ever-further doubt.

The latest signs of ill-feeling came as a Senate committee voted unanimously on Thursday evening to cut $33m from next year’s foreign aid budget for Pakistan, $1m for every year in the jail sentence that Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi was awarded earlier this week.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Foreign affairs, Pakistan, US foreign policy |
From Economists' Forum May 18, 2012

Dr Jan Fidrmuc, Department of Economics and Finance and Centre for Economic Development and Institutions, Brunel University

Anti-austerity protestors take to the streets in central Athens earlier this year. Getty Images

Anti-austerity protestors take to the streets in central Athens earlier this year. Getty Images

Following the rejection of EU imposed austerity measures by the overwhelming majority of Greek voters, eurozone finance ministers have once again come to Brussels to try and save the single currency in what is being described as a ‘crucial 48 hours’.

Two thirds of the Greek electorate voted for parties opposed to the austerity measures required by the European Commission, ECB and IMF as a precondition of a further bailout; despite the outgoing government pledging to adhere to these measures.

Without compromise either by the Greeks accepting austerity measures or the EU offering concessions on the proposed package, another election is inevitable. In this case the bailout package will be suspended, Greece will default on its debt and an exit from the eurozone may follow. None of this will offer much respite for the struggling Greek economy.

In the past the EU offered concessions to voters having rejected EU treaties, however this time there is little political will, and not only in Germany, to offer sweeteners to the Greeks to help them swallow the bitter pill of fiscal adjustment.

Why then are the Greeks fighting against the support from the EU? And should the rest of the EU let them resist or should they be offered a sweeter deal after all?

Continue reading: “Greece: a question of tough love”

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Posted in Foreign affairs |

Running the Czech Republic

May 14, 2012 6:11 pm by Gideon Rachman

This advertisement for the Prague marathon – which I photographed in the airport, this weekend – strikes me as having an unfortunate slogan. I know that Czechs are not terribly happy with the their government. But a nation that is still worried about national sovereignty, after rule from Berlin and Moscow, might be a little more careful about how it words invitations to tourists.

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Posted in Foreign affairs |

In the Picture: Charles Taylor

April 26, 2012 8:11 am by Amie Tsang

Charles Taylor in 1990 (Getty)

Update: Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, was found guilty of aiding and abetting 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone, the first head of state to be convicted by an international tribunal since the Nuremberg trials at the end of the second world war.

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Posted in Africa, Foreign affairs, In The Picture |
From Westminster blog April 25, 2012

 

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Welcome to our live coverage of the Leveson Inquiry into the standards and ethics of the UK press, on the day when Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corp, will give evidence.

Continue reading: “Rupert Murdoch at Leveson: Live blog”

Posted in Foreign affairs |

From the Westminster Blog: James Murdoch at Leveson

April 24, 2012 10:20 am by John Aglionby

Photo: Getty

The FT’s Westminster Blog ran live coverage of James Murdoch’s appearance at the Leveson inquiry in media standards and journalistic ethics.

By Salamander Davoudi and Esther Bintliff in London, with contributions from FT correspondents. All times GMT.

You can also read our new coverage and comment by John Gapper on the FT’s Business blog. And view the Leveson documents here.

Posted in Foreign affairs |

Eurozone in crisis: live coverage

April 23, 2012 7:53 am by FT

Welcome to our rolling coverage of the day’s developments in the eurozone.

Today the live blog comes from Paris, as France digests a surge of far right support in the presidential election, but we’ll also be updating you on news from around Europe. All times Paris time.

By Tom Burgis in Paris and Esther Bintliff in London with contributions from FT correspondents around the world.

17.27 That’s about it for our live coverage from Paris today. A quick round-up of the day’s developments.

We leave you with news of a rare moment of accountability in said crisis:

Geir Haarde, the former prime minister of Iceland, has been found guilty of one count of negligence in the run-up to the country’s 2008 banking crash but will receive no punishment. The FT’s Michael Stothard reports from Stockholm:

Geir Haarde, the former prime minister of Iceland, has been found guilty of one count of negligence in the run-up to the country’s 2008 banking crash but will receive no punishment.

A special court of impeachment designed to deal with criminal charges against Icelandic government ministers found Mr Haarde guilty of failing to hold dedicated cabinet meetings ahead of the crisis.

But the court cleared him of three more significant charges that could have carried a sentence of up to two years in jail.

The full story is here. À la prochaine…

Continue reading: “Eurozone in crisis: live coverage”

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Posted in Foreign affairs, French politics, World affairs |

Watch the watch disappear

April 16, 2012 7:04 pm by FT

You wait ages for a powerful and influential person to be caught trying to hide an extremely expensive watch – and then two come along at once.

Patriarch Kirill (AP Photo/Patriarchia.ru)

First it was Russian Patriarch Kirill I, whose photograph on the church’s website was digitally altered to erase a $30,000 Breguet watch from his wrist — except whoever made the change forgot about the clear reflection of the timepiece in the mahogany table. This did little to enhance the patriarch’s reputation or that of his church, which faces increasing allegations of corruption and criticism for interfering in Russian politics.

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Posted in Europe, Foreign affairs, France, French politics |

Americas summit defies discord

April 16, 2012 9:56 am by John Paul Rathbone

There may not be another Summit of the Americas – at least as we know it. Would that matter? Maybe not.  The sixth summit, which ended on Sunday, was supposedly riven by  intractable issues. Cuba’s absence was one. The Falklands another. But that was pretty much it, despite the many headlines about inter-American discord.

Elsewhere, the US and Canada saw eye-to-eye with most of Latin America. The region’s biggest and fastest-growing economies – Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru to name just four – all agreed on their desire for more cooperation and closer integration with North America, not less.

Continue reading: “Americas summit defies discord”

Posted in Development, Foreign affairs, Global economy, Latin America, US foreign policy, World affairs |

Doth the US fret too much when looking south?

April 13, 2012 4:25 pm by John Paul Rathbone

For many years Latin America complained the United States never paid it much attention. Worse, when it did, it never cared for long. Instead, Latin America suffered the respect usually devoted to a “back yard”; at best, benign neglect.

Today the boot is on the other foot. Latin America, which over the past decade has enjoyed its best economic performance in a generation, no longer seems to care much about the US. When Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff’s travelled to Washington to meet US president Barack Obama this week, the tone of her remarks were cordial but aloof.

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Posted in Foreign affairs, Latin America, US foreign policy |
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The World

with Gideon Rachman

About this blog About Gideon Blog guide
Gideon Rachman and his FT colleagues debate international affairs. Read more on the authors.

Gideon became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington and Bangkok. He also edited The Economist’s business and Asia sections.

His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation
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