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A careful selection and summary of editorials, commentaries, and analyses from the world’s leading newspapers and magazines to help you stay on top of the latest debates and developments in the transatlantic agenda. See list of monitoring sources.
Readers can also see how the perspectives and priorities diverge in different regions.

The US Does Not Beat About the Bush

Army, marine and government cabinets have all been requisitioned to ensure a quick response. ++ After the mismanagement of Katrina and a foreseeable mass movement of Haitian boats towards Florida, the US is pushing its “moral impetus,” paving the way for crisis management in Haiti and overshadowing their European and Brazilian partners. ++ After Wilson and Clinton, will the renewed promise of long-term American support to Haiti be effective? ++ And yet again, the United Nations is nowhere to be seen.

Obama: the Show Must Stop

After a year in office, Obama’s pragmatic leadership takes a Leviathan-like posture. ++ Supposedly outweighing the political balance towards government between corrosive liberal action and conservative dismantling practices, the electorate is sinking the president’s style. ++ Pragmatic big government confronts the American true "basic sense of equilibrium." ++ Americans enjoy his temperate and thoughtful attitude but rather dislike his policies. ++ The character clearly runs over the position. ++ A little humility is therefore welcome.

Think Global, Act Local

After a short hopeful break, there is more room for “green-scepticism” than ever before. ++ First, Climategate undermined public confidence in the impartiality of academics. ++ Second, the hope put into the Copenhagen conference was shattered by the realpolitik atmosphere at the Bella Center. ++ Surprisingly enough, this “damaged credibility does not alter local facts:” National policies enthusiastically implement carbon taxes to fill in the budget gaps. ++ Environmental policy’s triumph lies more in the local ground than in fancy diplomacy.

Capital vs. Labour

Wall Street was the first to recover from the financial crisis as opposed to 10% of the American population still struggling to find a job. ++ The pay controversy is more relevant than ever before. ++ Yet the New York Stock Exchange evolves in a different temporality: it aims at allocating capital for the best, while most of us will be creating wealth rather than concentrating the already existing capital. ++ That is why it is still so hard to regulate the financial sector and give an economic base to the virtuous concept of greed in finance.

Responding to Haiti

The dismal response by the EU to the crisis in Haiti shows the stark contrast between the “world superpower” and the United States. ++ Within hours of the earthquake, the US had already gotten the Port-au-Prince airport functioning and landed, among other things, large contingents of medical staff as well as hospital ships, while Baroness Ashton more or less stood on the sidelines. ++ The only real difference between this catastrophe and the 2004 tsunami is that now the EU has clamored ever louder, claiming it position as a global power.

Jihad: Women Can Do It Too

The wife of last week's CIA suicide bomber raises the topic of female Jihadi support. ++ Online dissemination of radical ideologies allows women to participate in jihad by overcoming religious dilemmas regarding their inherent inferior status in society. ++ “Writing is also a bomb:” online chat rooms offer platforms for communiqués and articles of fanatical expression. ++ Terrorist “women empowerment” sadly proves to be very effective. ++ The call for female support to their jihadist husbands is spreading forcefully.

A Bright Spell In Sight

Neighbours witness a very positive context in spite of a 40 years old past of stormy relations between India and Bangledesh. ++ Timing eventually made both sides meet on an common ground for reinforced dialog. ++ Trade and border security issues are on the way to being successfully negotiated. ++ A tiny, two year window would allow both partners to embed this opening into a sustainable relationship. ++ India must however not take advantage of its bigger economic position for the sake of both partners and for the Asian region as a whole.

Mending Rifts With Tel Aviv

2009 went from bad to worse in terms of EU-Israeli political relations, but the new Spanish presidency offers a chance to shift gears. ++ The new policy-makers and commissioners within the European Union can learn a lot from the 30 year record of failure regarding the Middle-East peace process. ++ “A more modest approach from Brussels and an unbending condemnation of terror” would go a long way towards healing the rifts with Tel Aviv. ++ By re-evaluating this important relationship, significant progress might be made.

China Responsible for an Open Trade War

China’s merciless economic strategy exacerbates the global economic downturn and international tension. ++ This process of manipulating the currency markets and drowning the world with Chinese exports makes global economies defenceless. ++ Their “beggar-thy-neighbour” policy weakens nations´ fiscal efforts to recover from the crisis.++ We are on the brink of an open trade war. ++ China must instead invest in domestic social policy in favour of the Chinese people rather than at the expense of other countries´ economies.

EU Diplomacy Acts Tough But Talks Soft, Again

As Baroness Ashton, the brand new face of EU foreign policy, is auditioned by the European parliament, scepticism prevails. ++ The new head of European diplomacy is neither convincing nor federating. ++ Silence remains over hot topics such as Afghanistan and Iraq. ++ And uncertainty hangs over who will lead the EU at last, among Barosso, Van Rompuy and the 27 national foreign affairs ministers despite an allegedly more coherent EU scheme. ++ This is obviously prudence on the part of Ashton, being carefully scrutinized from all sides.