Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good
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April 20, 2022
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A New, Softer Iron Curtain? |
The Cold War is back! Contain Russia like we did the USSR! No, don’t fight another Cold War!
Each argument has been heard since Russia invaded Ukraine, but outside the realm of diplomatic alignments and global military-force postures, Carla Norrlöf writes for The World Politics Review that the Iron Curtain has returned—including, notably, in business and culture.
“Even if governments decide to re-engage with Russia, other economic or morally motivated actors may not want to,” Norrlöf writes. Auction houses have canceled Russian art-sales events in London, Norrlöf notes. Today, Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian tennis players.
Sanctions can steer private behavior, but Norrlöf writes that such voluntary “measures ... are a product of self-policing behavior among independent economic actors that neither require enforcement nor can be mandated away without interfering with free markets. ... The longer the war in Ukraine continues, with its profound human, social and economic casualties, the less likely the corporate, sports and arts worlds are to return to business-as usual-in Russia.” |
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When it comes to governmentally orchestrated economic decoupling from Russia, EU consumption of Russian gas has taken center stage in the global debate. The European Commission has laid out plans to slash that consumption by two thirds this year, and at the Financial Times, six authors outline possible maneuvers like increasing pipeline imports from Norway and Algeria and turning thermostats down by 1°C in colder months.
But the rest will take time. To import more liquefied natural gas (LNG) via tanker ships, European countries will need new ports and re-gasification facilities. Even a quicker fix, renting ships to serve that purpose, “typically take(s) several years,” the FT authors write. All of which leaves some experts doubting Europe can pull off a smooth and swift transition. |
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That’s how a quintuple-bylined Der Spiegel article terms German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s reluctance to help Ukraine more aggressively. As Scholz resists sending heavier weapons, and as Germany continues to buy Russian gas, criticism has grown more pointed, including within Scholz’s own governing coalition, the Der Spiegel authors write.
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Macron, Le Pen Duel Over France’s Future |
French President Emmanuel Macron is seen as the favorite against far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, in an April 24 rematch of their 2017 final-round presidential contest, but mainstream commentators worry that his lead isn’t secure enough.
Le Pen has worked to soften her image in recent years, but Rim-Sarah Alouane argues in a New York Times opinion essay that “underneath the sheen of normalcy, the brutally racist ideology (Le Pen’s) party pioneered over the past 30 years is very much intact.”
Commentators note that support for the nationalist far right appears to have grown during Macron’s presidency, and some join the chorus criticizing him as haughty and imperious. “(E)ven if French liberal democracy survives this brush with its own mortality,” Jeremy Cliffe writes for The New Statesman, “it may not be so lucky next time.”
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Sri Lanka’s Crisis: A Warning to the Developing World? |
“The economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now includes a sovereign default,” The Economist writes of Sri Lanka’s public-debt crisis and request for emergency help from the IMF.
In an editorial, Bloomberg focuses on Sri Lanka’s borrowing from China and political leadership, but The Economist suggests the problem is bigger. Russia’s war on Ukraine is driving up fuel and food prices globally, and low-income countries—particularly those that import more key commodities than they export—are suffering from the inflation, including via political backlash. “Sri Lanka’s default could be the first of many,” the magazine warns.
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