Archive for the 'Politics' Category

This sounds like an interesting project: three bright young people (admittedly, two of them are friends of mine, so this is a bit of an advert ) are mounting a website dedicated to global election analysis. Here’s an extract from their mission statement:
NeoElect idea was born when we realized that over 120 elections occur [...]

In the wake of Berlusconi’s election victory in Italy, the BBC’s Europe editor Mark Mardell brings us a brilliant blog entry on what could become an interesting constellation at the EU: Sarkozy and Berlusconi.
My favourite quote:
Diplomats in European capitals are scratching their heads, trying to work out how these two little men with big [...]

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has proposed an Organisation of Latin American States on his visit to Mexico, El País reports.
The idea is old, very old. Ever since their independence, Latin American states have tried to associate themselves into integration projects of all varieties. The result of it is a veritable spaghetti bowl of partially [...]

No, I haven’t given up writing this blog. I’m just really busy right now, writing papers, doing funding applications, and all other sorts of stuff. I’ll be back in due course. Anyway, here are some things that I would comment on if I had more time and energy:

The recent NATO summit and its implications (especially [...]

Or: High Politics according to Hugo, Rafa and Álvaro
Now that the diplomatic crisis in the Andes is over, it’s time for some analysis: what did it all mean? Well, many things. Let’s start from the beginning.

Why did Ecuador get ticked off? - Last weekend, Colombian military forces entered Ecuadorian territory in order to kill a [...]

ETA assassinates a former city councillor
With two days to go before the Spanish general elections on Sunday, ETA obviously figured things were going in too smooth and democratic a fashion. Earlier today, the separatist and, let’s face it, terrorist, organisation assasinated a former Socialist councillor of the Mondragón city council. The man was shot in [...]

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has ceded ground on his Mediterranean Union initiative, El País reports. After a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel, he has agreed to inscribe it within the EU framework of the Barcelona Process.
In a very Sarkozy fashion, the Mediterranean Union was intended as a French initiative outside the EU framework - [...]

The US have already done it. Russia refuses to do it. So does Serbia. And in the middle, as so often, a headless EU that can’t agree on what to do, so in the first instance the member states are not doing anything but negotiate amongst themselves. We’re talking, of course, about the recognition of [...]

Speedy Sarko and Super Lula
Interesting developments on the Colombia/Venezuela argument front: internationally hyperactive French presidentNicolas Sarkozy and Brazil’s president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva are buddying up to resolve the issues, El País reports. They are meeting today on the border between Brazil and French Guyana to discuss how the two countries could be persuaded [...]

… and Clinton a PC? This question is asked in a great New York Times article. Barack is more stylish, youthful and cool, while Hillary is more traditional, hectic and ‘in your face’, the article argues and backs it up with an analysis of both contenders’ websites.
Unfortunately, this also means that Barack remains a ‘niche product’ [...]