Sanctions Will Turn Iran into Another Cuba
The U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Iran earlier this year seem to be working with a vengeance. As if by remote control, the West has thousands of Iranians taking to the streets while the nation’s political elites are splitting…
Why Obama’s Iran Strategy is All Wrong
The good news: We now have a new set of talks on Iran’s nuclear program scheduled for mid April in Istanbul. The bad news: Washington and its allies have not prepared the ground for these talks. We are a negotiating…
Unthinkable: Conflict between Israel and Iran
The guessing game as to whether sanctions imposed last month against Iran for its nuclear program will work is over. They are already working. This past week the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, struck a notably conciliatory tone as…
Sanctions: Will Iran Redouble Its Nuclear Efforts?
Iranian oil, American diplomacy, and Asian economic power combined last week to yield a highly unstable, potentially combustible cocktail. The American economy and the financial markets have much to be thankful for so far in 2012, particularly as we look…
Iran Sanctions: Another Cuban Missile Crisis?
And two more hotspots: Iraq and Egypt Is 2012 destined to be a year of Middle East challenges—not to say calamities—for the Obama administration? It has certainly started out ominously. The White House already has three fires to put out…
Japan Snaps Back, Moody’s Drops Credit Rating. Huh?
This week Japan became the latest nation to get a downgrade from one of the rating agencies that seem to whizz around the world pronouncing this economy or that unworthy of its previous status. On Wednesday, Moody’s dropped Japan from…
Now Even Japan Says ‘No Nukes’
Germany did it a little more than a month ago, and Italy followed suit a week later. Now Japan’s prime minister has taken a stand against nukes. “In the future,” Naoto Kan told a nationwide television audience last week, “we…
Merkel’s Bold Rejection of Nuclear Power
The continuing fallout from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has taken us well beyond disrupted supply chains. Case in point: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s just-announced decision to turn Germany into a nuclear-free economy within a decade. The move by Merkel, who is meeting…
Following the Fallout from Fukushima
What the hell was anybody doing building six nuclear power plants in an earthquake-prone zone?” Senator John Kerry asked during a speech the other day at the Commonwealth Club of California. “I don’t get it. It’s hubris, if not stupidity.”…
Japan: The Meltdown of Growth-At-Any-Cost
Long before the worst earthquake in Japan’s history produced the worst nuclearaccident in Japan’s history, nuclear power had acquired a menacing reputation among many Japanese. If the crisis in triplicate at the Fukushima power plant (where four nuclear reactors are…
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