One of the most important findings in my new book, Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth, is that domestic politics shapes foreign policy in ways that most historians have failed to adequately recognize.

Global Governance 2025, a joint effort of the Atlantic Council and its global partners, offers a wide range of trajectories for the international system depending on whether we adequately address known threats.

This morning, the Atlantic Council hosted the launch of Global Governance 2025, a report following a long collaboration with several partners.  The fundamental takeaway is that, while cooperation between the United States and Europe is essential, it "is no longer enough to effectively manage global challenges."  Instead, key players from around the globe will need to develop new institutions to deal with the world's problems.

This report analyzes the gap between current international governance institutions, organizations and norms and the demands for global governance likely to be posed by long-term strategic challenges over the next 15 years.

Yesterday, Twitter, Facebook, and other popular social media sites were brought to a halt by distributed denial of service attacks.  It appears the target was a lone blogger in Georgia and the attack was timed to coincide with the anniversary of Russia's invasion of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Sino-European relations are a one-way street going in China’s direction.  A recent report describes it as “unconditional engagement,” a “policy that gives China access to all the economic and other benefits of cooperation with Europe while asking for little in return.” 

The rise in attractiveness of “State Capitalism” development models is cited as a potential consequence of the increasing economic power of Russia and particularly China in the latest report from the National Intelligence Council,  Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World.

A few years ago I sat at a friend’s kitchen table on a cool summer evening in Dublin, Ireland.  I don’t visit there very often, so I inevitably wanted to catch up on Irish sports, the music community, as well as the political scene of a country that, for its size, is well adept at making world headlines.