For a while now I’ve had a private theory about the way our world used to work. It goes like this: although communism may have been bad for the people of Russia (and of the Soviet satellite states), it did a useful job in keeping the west honest through negative example. Free speech? Yes, we [...]

The war has a retrograde feel says Charlie. I believe* it’s only the third conventional war between two countries since the Gulf war. They were far more common during the cold war era.
The other was the Ethiopia-Eritrea war**, and…Iraq. One hopes retro hasn’t become fashionable following a weakening of the international law. That would [...]

It’s hard to tell today whether the pessimism regarding the WTO talks which are supposed to conclude in Geneva tomorrow is just standard last minute brinkmanship or a sign of serious trouble.  But there is at least one strange aspect to the US position, which has been critical of China and India in the last few days.

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A championship that ends in a bland 1-0 game does tend to affirm certain prejudices about this sport. And after the wild craziness of Germany-Croatia, Germany-Turkey, or Russia-Netherlands…
Oh, well, it was a fun two weeks anyhow. Congratulations to our Spanish friends!

Sadly, No reads Anne Applebaum so you don’t have to. Hijinks ensue.

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Quoth Clif:
What people on the street in Poland (or elsewhere) think of Obama because he’s black isn’t [...]

We’ve occasionally played with the idea of the EU as the Borg, a new kind of political entity whose chief means of power is membership in its system of technocratic cooperation. The paradigm of this is, of course, the successful absorption of the Mediterranean ex-dictatorships and the economic development of the poor periphery - not [...]

It’s not clear that there’s much useful to be blogged about from a distance on the catastrophes in China and Burma.   But one difference from the past is that the population scale of Asia relative to the rest of the world is now matched by its economic influence.  In past decades, 6 figure death tolls [...]

Just a note on the Georgian/Abkhaz/Russian situation: the Abkhazians claim to have destroyed another drone, with a formidable Russian SAM system (NATO = SA-11). (H/T: Wired.) If the Russians have really given them one of these or possibly even these, they must mean it.

The Georgians may have lost two more UAVs in the escalating crisis between them, Abkhazia, and Russia (in so far as the latter two are distinct). At least, the Abkhaz side is claiming that their “anti-aircraft forces” shot down two drones, presumably Georgian ones; the Georgians deny it, which is interesting because they were keen [...]

The Zimbabwean opposition is claiming victory on a monster turnout in the elections there, although this may be part of a strategy to pre-empt government rigging by claiming early and often. It would be nice if this was it, but I’m sceptical, of course.
Especially, the presence of ex-finance minister Simba Makoni as a candidate worries [...]