Miguel Angel Benedicto explains the crisis of the European Union, which is stuck behind an impasse of inefficiency: unable to act but in starts and leaps and following its impulses rather than working collectively. Benedicto believes that responding to day-to-day problems is not enough. The pressing issues of expansion, immigration, foreign policy, globalization, and the distribution of energy require intelligent planning, and frameworks for action for which the EU is unprepared. In order to avoid paralysis, the EU must put radical reforms into action to create change for both the short and long term.

Javier Ortiz explains how, six months after ETA‘s call for a definitive ceasefire, peace may fail in Basque country. In Ortiz‘s opinion, the peace has grown stale because no one –neither the Spanish Government, nor the opposition of the Popular Party, nor the Socialist Party of Euskadi, nor ETA, nor the illegal political party Batasuna– is willing to make the first move toward compromise. Each player seems to be waiting for the others to capitulate, out of a sense of responsibility, and so no one is budging, consequently the stagnant peace process could likely fail.

Per Persson examines the overwhelming defeat of the Social Democratic Party in the recent elections and explains why, after more than twelve years of uninterrupted governance, the Swedish people have decided to change governments. Not only did the Social Democratic Party fail to outline its plan to create more jobs, but as rigid political lines blur, and all parties drift towards the center, the renewed and revitalized Moderaterna (Moderate) Party and its center-right Alliance were able to attract a vast majority of the votes to lead them to an overwhelming victory. In Persson opinion, this victory presents a golden opportunity for the new majority government of the Alliance and Prime Minister Reinfeldt, to lead the newly transformed Swedish politics towards important, lasting change.

Ricardo Israel Z. writes that neither the disaster of Iraq, nor the war in Afghanistan, nor his unconditional support of George W. Bush, can explain Tony Blair‘s nosedive fall from power. The reason that Tony Blair lost power –or better said, the reason his own party members wrested it from him– is because many are convinced that if Blair stays in power he will lead the British Labour Party to disaster in the next elections. In Israel Z.‘s opinion, what happened to Margaret Thatcher –who was forced to resign without having lost an election– could very likely happen to Tony Blair.

Piero Ignazi describes how the crisis in the Middle East tested the orientation and decision-making readiness of the newly transformed Italian foreign policy under the Romano Prodi government. The new, more active approach of the Prodi government to practice equal favoritism of all parties concerned, helped greatly to reach a ceasefire to the conflict in Lebanon, and to agree on the deployment of peace-keeping troops, which Italy will help lead. Italy‘s active position has met with overwhelming support by a majority of countries including, surprisingly enough, the US and Israel, raising the question as to whether this success was simply a fluke of circumstance, or whether it represents the beginning of a more assertive foreign policy that will bring Italy greater status in the international community.

Per Persson describes how after almost a century of power, the Social Democrats are losing support in Sweden. With the economy on the ups, all rational reasoning would point to the easy re-election of the Social Democrats and current Prime Minister Goran Persson, but preliminary polls show the opposite. In Persson‘s opinion, many Swedes are dissatisfied with the current government’s foreign policy, unfulfilled promises of job creation, the arrogance of the Social Democrats, and with the disproportionate amount of power that Prime Minister Goran Persson has gained. The Social Democracy Party is firmly rooted within Swedish society and change, Persson points out, will not be easy, but the time may have come to give the opposition a fresh chance at government.

Eric L. Napoli writes that in this summer’s war in Lebanon, the US responded by stalling cease fire negotiations in favour of Israeli interests while Europe‘s reaction was to do nothing, thus demonstrating that the EU still lacks the political will and infrastructure for impeding an acute humanitarian crisis in its own front yard. Napoli, thus, questions European passivity towards the human tragedy of its neighbours. He explains how on one side of the Mediterranean hundreds of civilians have lost their lives and thousands are homeless and turned into refugees, and on the other side, the Europeans are getting their feet wet, but not by defending their neighbours’ human rights or counterbalancing US foreign policy. The Europeans are on vacation.

Carlos Taibo explains how diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States have become strained over the last two years. In Taibo‘s opinion, the United States has been pressuring Russia to dissuade the country from alliances with rogue nations, and to impede Russia from returning to its status as a Cold War world power. US pressure has made it difficult for Putin to put foreign policies into practice that achieve positive results for his country.

Piero Ignazi explains how Italian foreign policy has changed since the election of Romano Prodi as Prime Minister. While Berlusconi was in office, Italy found little support among its European counterparts, and turned to the United States as one of its only allies in the international relations. But now, with a shift in leadership from center-right to center-left, Italy has pulled out of Iraq, criticized Guantanamo, and even begun to question its continuing involvement in Afghanistan. The relationship between Italy and the United States will never be the same.