Michael Gerson
5/26/2010

Throughout history there have been times when respect for another culture clashes with universal human rights. A form of this is playing out now among traditional, burqa-wearing Muslims and a more liberal, European society. Seen as a sign of subjugation and oppression, some European leaders find the burqa unacceptable. But Gerson points out that banning or otherwise regulating the wearing of burqas is actually an assertion of European cultural identity that undermines the concept of religious freedom.

Gerson writes about politics, global health and development, religion and foreign policy.

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Katrina vanden Heuvel
5/26/2010

The author makes a case against the war in Afghanistan, calling President Obama’s approach “fundamentally flawed” and far too costly in lives and money. The numbers from last month’s Pentagon report indicate that the counterinsurgency, intended to win over the Afghan people, has not been successful. Vanden Heuvel supports an alternative strategy of gradual troop withdrawal and diplomacy, but the president has asked for $32 billion for the troop surge in Afghanistan. As the Senate votes on this bill next week, perhaps it will demonstrate the growing opposition in Congress and among American citizens to “a flawed strategy and a failed war.”

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation and writes a weekly column for The Post.

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Robert Kagan
5/25/2010

The Obama administration and the media are hailing the president’s successful “reset” diplomacy with Russia, claiming Obama’s approach has resulted in Russia’s agreement to a UN Security Council resolution against a nuclear Iran. But the author notes that Russia’s verbal agreement with the US about Iranian nuclear proliferation is nothing new. In fact, the Bush administration elicited similar agreeable responses from Russian leaders in 2006, 2007, and 2008. This latest agreement could very well be just another round of “Charlie Brown and the football,” says Kagan.

Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes a monthly column for The Post.

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Bret Stephens
5/25/2010

The conservative blogosphere is buzzing with outrage over plans to build a 13-story mosque and Muslim cultural center just a few hundred feet from Ground Zero. As a resident of lower Manhattan, Stephens sees it differently. The center–to be known as Cordoba House if it is built–might yet serve as an excellent test case for Muslim tolerance. That is how the concept is being advertised by Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Kuwaiti-born imam whose brainchild this is and who sees it as as a step toward the Americanization of the Muslim community. Stephens questions the arguments of those who oppose the project and the consideration the would-be builders of the center have given to toleration themselves.

Stephens writes ‘Global View’ for the Journal.

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Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar
5/20/2010

The rules of the IMF are being bent to accommodate the fiscal needs of European countries that together dominate its shareholding. Although the IMF articles of association allow lending specifically for supporting countries’ balance of payments, the organization is not supposed to lend for fiscal support alone, and no developing country has ever received a loan to meet a purely fiscal problem, as Greece is now. Profligate Europeans may be squeezing emerging markets out of limited lending capacity. Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the “BRICs”) have all contributed to the latest expansion of IMF lending capacity, transferring significant cash to Europe. Yet this change in balance between creditors and debtors is not reflected in IMF voting shares, which must rise sharply to reflect the significance of the BRICs.

Aiyar is a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity in Washington, DC.

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