Roundup: Media's Take

Cristine Russell: A Japanese Three Mile Island?

[Cristine Russell is an award-winning science, health and environment writer. She is a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.] In the aftermath of Japan's devastating earthquake, international fear and uncertainty over the state of emergency declared at two of the country's nuclear power plants--and the possibility of a core meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power

Wesley K. Clark: Libya Doesn't Meet the Test for U.S. Military Action

[Wesley K. Clark, a retired Army general and NATO's former supreme allied commander in Europe, is a senior fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations at the University of California at Los Angeles.] In March of 1974, when I was a young Army captain, I was sitting in a conference on civil-military relations at Brown University. Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.) was onstage expounding on the lessons from Vietnam about military interventions. He then stopped and looked right at me a

Richard Downie: Five Myths About Moammar Gaddafi

[Richard Downie is the deputy director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.] Like Sinatra, Moammar Gaddafi has always done things his way. When Egypt- and Tunis-style public protests failed to dislodge the Libyan leader, a full-scale rebellion erupted, only to be met with the uncompromising brutality so familiar to longtime Gaddafi observers. For now, Libya appears stalemated, with rebels controlling the eastern half of the country while regim

David Sirota: From Charlie Sheen to Reagan Nostalgia, The '80s Just Won't Go Away

[David Sirota, a syndicated columnist and radio host, is the author of "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now."] Charlie Sheen is hogging the spotlight. "Tron" and "Wall Street" have just left theaters. Moammar Gaddafi is the planet's top bad guy. Millionaires are enjoying budget-busting tax cuts. Conservatives are saber-rattling against Iran. Bon Jovi is on tour. And Ronald Reagan tributes are everywhere. If yo

Jonathan Fenby: We should beware of another Le Pen

[Jonathan Fenby is a British author, journalist, and former editor of The Observer.] France’s political class cannot say it has not been warned. In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the veteran chief of the country’s National Front, caused an earthquake by edging out Lionel Jospin, the Socialist party candidate, from the run-off round of the presidential election. This week, a Harris Interactive poll reported that Mr Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, head of the far-right movement since January, wo

David Pilling: Lessons learnt from Kobe quake

[David Pilling is the Asia editor of the Financial Times.] Japan has seen nothing quite like it since 1995. Back then, when the devastating Kobe earthquake struck, at 5:46 on the morning of January 17, the country still felt invincible. Though the Japanese bubble had long ago burst, most Japanese had not yet reconciled themselves to the years of gentle decline that were to follow. The years of Japan as the wonder economy that would shortly overhaul the US to become Number One felt m

Andrew Rawnsley: Instead of fearing another Iraq, the west must do right by Libya

[Andrew Rawnsley is the Observer's award-winning chief political commentator.] Discussing with me what might be done to stop Colonel Gaddafi from slaughtering his people, a minister sighed: "It is all very difficult." So it is. How will it be done? Who will do it? On what authority? None of the diplomatic and military questions swirling around this crisis resolve into easy answers. But behind them all looms one big, inescapable and very stark question: are we prepared to l

Howard Mansfield: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

[Howard Mansfield is the author of “Turn and Jump: How Time and Place Fell Apart.”] NOT long ago, clocks were thought to be dangerous. Folklore had it that two of them ticking in the same room could bring “sure death.” It’s easy to see how this belief arose. The clocks were almost certain to disagree, and in the space between two chimings of one hour, uncertainty crept in; the machines’ authority was undermined. We don’t like to be reminded that clock time is a convenient fiction.

Clyde Prestowitz: It's Not Just the iPhone that America Doesn't Make

[Clyde Prestowitz is the president of the Economic Strategy Institute and writes on the global economy for FP.] ...Take two economies, say the United States and the E.U. Take a product, say airplanes and especially commercial airliners. During World War II, the Germans, Japanese, British, and Americans all made very good airplanes. Europe was competitive with the United States in its ability to make airplanes. After the war, both the Europeans and the Americans had all the technolog

David Bromwich: The Embarrassments of Empire

[David Bromwich is Professor of Literature at Yale University.]From Egypt to Pakistan, February 2011 will be remembered as a month unusually full of the embarrassments of empire. Americans were enthralled by a spectacle of liberty in which we felt we should somehow be playing a part. Here were popular movements toward self-government, which might once have looked to the United States as an exemplar, springing up all across North Africa and the Middle East.  Why did they not look

Tony Karon: Echoes of Spain in Libya's Civil War?

[Tony Karon is a senior editor at TIME, where he has covered international conflicts in the Middle East, Asia, and the Balkans since 1997.] Addressing the rag-tag citizens' army on the barricades of Madrid in 1936 preparing to face the fascist army massed to storm the city, Dolores Ibarruri -- the revolutionary better known as La Pasionaria -- laid out the creed of those who would give their lives to defend Spanish democracy: "It is better to die on our feet than to live on our

Benny Avni: Libya ... foolish to stay out

[Benny Avni is a New York Post contributor.] With the Libyan unrest now a full-fledged civil war watched by the entire world, idly standing by is no longer an option. The war between an all-powerful dictator and a ragtag group of rebels, whose motives range from tribal loyalties and religious fervor to dreams of democracy, is fast becoming the Mideast's equivalent of last century's civil war in Spain. Remember that? There were good reasons for America to

Stephen Kinzer: Why the US must not intervene in Libya

[Stephen Kinzer is a former New York Times reporter and the author of Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq and Reset Middle East: Old Friends and New Alliances: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey,Iran.] The urge to intervene around the world may truly have become hardwired into the American psyche. How else to explain the seriousness with which some in Washington are suggesting that the United States take sides in the unfolding civil war in Libya?

Steven Plaut: Return Libya to Its Rightful Rulers

[Steven Plaut is a professor at the University of Haifa. His book "The Scout" is available at Amazon.com.] The world is wringing its hands over the fate of Libya. Being a helpful sort of guy, and what with Purim fast approaching, I know just the proper solution. Control of Libya should be returned at once to the natural and rightful owners of Libya, the people who controlled it before it was invaded and occupied by Arab military hordes. Libya shou

Eric Trager: Do Egyptians Want to Invade Libya?

[Eric Trager is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.] Egyptian attitudes on Qaddafi are complicated. Approximately one million Egyptians work in Libya, and many are outraged by Qaddafi’s murderous crackdown, which has already claimed the lives of over 1,000 people according to conservative estimates. Many of the Tahrir faithful are disgusted by the crackdown, and pre-Qaddafi Libya

Joseph S. Nye Jr.: Zakaria's World

[Joseph S. Nye Jr. is a professor at Harvard University and author of The Future of Power.] Fareed Zakaria is one of our most perceptive analysts of America's role in the world, and I generally agree with him. But in the case of his new special essay for Time, "Are America's Best Days Behind Us?," I think he paints too gloomy a picture of American decline. Americans are prone to cycles of belief in decline, and the term itself confuses various dimensions of ch

Fareed Zakharia: Are America's Best Days Behind Us?

[Fareed Zakharia is editor at large for Time Magazine.] I am an American, not by accident of birth but by choice. I voted with my feet and became an American because I love this country and think it is exceptional. But when I look at the world today and the strong winds of technological change and global competition, it makes me nervous. Perhaps most unsettling is the fact that while these forces gather strength, Americans seem unable to grasp the magnitude of the challenges that fa

Akbar Ahmed: Fair to Muslims?

[Akbar Ahmed, professor of Islamic studies at American University, is the author of “Journey Into America: The Challenge of Islam.”] MANY American Muslims are fearful and angry about the Congressional hearings on Islamic radicalism that will start Thursday, with some arguing that they are a mere provocation meant to incite bigotry. But as a scholar, I view the hearings, to be led by Representative Peter T. King, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, as an opportu

Pat Buchanan: It’s Libya’s War, Not Ours

[Pat Buchanan has been a senior adviser to three presidents, twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.] Before the United States plunges into a third war in the Middle East, let us think this one through, as we did not the last two. What would be the purpose of establishing a no-fly zone over Libya? According to advocates, to keep Moammar Gadhafi from using his air force to attack civilians.

Richard Haass: How to read the second Arab awakening

[Richard Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations.] It is nearly 75 years since George Antonius wrote of the first “Arab awakening”, one reflecting an outbreak of nationalist sentiment against European masters. What we are currently witnessing could prove to be a second such awakening; one neither generated by, nor aimed at Israel and the US, but a home-grown phenomenon that targets unresponsive, repressive leaders. We cannot be sure, however, whether wha