Atlantic Council

From his 75 percent income tax to his 25 percent approval ratings, François Hollande, the French president who took office one year ago, has already been judged the hapless Louis XVI on the eve of the French Revolution or the feckless René Coty who presided over the demise of the Fourth Republic. But what has caused Hollande to adopt the stance he has?

 Occasionally a public opinion survey surfaces that signals a seismic event. That is the case with a new report from the Pew Research Center that measures the widening tremors of a political earthquake now shaking Europe.

Successful summits tend to be more about symbolism than substance.  South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s summit with US President Barack Obama certainly had its share of symbolism: the first foreign trip of the ROK’s new first woman President, 60^th anniversary of the US-ROK alliance, and US-ROK messages to North Korea, to Japan and China.

In a season of commencement speeches, those trying to impart a measure of wisdom to college grads would do well to consult President John F. Kennedy's American University speech, given 50 years ago next month.

On this anniversary of the 1940 Nazi invasion of the Low Countries it is perhaps appropriate to consider the state of Europe’s defense.

The debate about European defense tends to focus on the need to spend more and deploy more. One deceptively simple question is usually ignored: why? Americans seem to assume that more European capabilities will be deployed where it is convenient for the United States. Europeans just seek to avoid the difficult debate that it would provoke – until now.

Pakistan's upcoming elections on May 11 provoke both fear and hope. The last time Pakistan held a reasonably free and fair election, in 1970, the country ended up splitting into two, as Bangladesh emerged out of the ruins of a horrible civil war that led to Indian military intervention.

This weekend, many tens of millions of some 200 million Pakistanis will elect new national and four provincial governments. The elections are a remarkable milestone due in large measure to President Asif Zardari's political navigational skills in the most roiled of waters.

Israel's military intervention in Syria destroyed Hezbollah bound missiles that might soon be aimed at Israeli cities and was clearly in Israel's national interests. Now there is pressure in Washington for the United States to follow Israel's lead and to also get involved militarily. President Obama should resist these calls.

This Holocaust Remembrance Day, it's worth noting an inconsistency present in public statements about atrocity prevention.