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donate Summary Blätter 2/2010
Norman Birnbaum
Prisoner in the White House
One year after his inauguration, President Obama appears to be a prisoner in the White House. Blätter editor Norman Birnbaum analyses the state of affairs and America's foreign policy staff. His thesis: the United States, and in particular the members its foreign policy apparatus, have not understood Obama's central message: that the old definition of foreign policy has to be overcome.
Hans-C. von Sponeck
In the Pashtunic quagmire. Obama's AfPak strategy
The London conference on Afghanistan convened on 28 January 2010. On this occasion, former German diplomat Hans-C. von Sponeck discusses the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He concludes that Washington has ignored the actual conditions in this region far too long. What is needed is not the intensification of a failed military strategy, but the development of alternatives to the NATO approach.
Benedikt Behrens
The case of Honduras. "No Change" in the U.S. Latin America policy?
A few days ago, Porfirio Lobo – who is supposed to have won the November election under the auspices of the putsch regime – was inaugurated as Honduras' new president. Historian Benedikt Behrens traces the events since the coup d'état against President Zelaya in June 2009 and analyses the reasons for the changed stance of the U.S. administration.
Heribert Prantl
The troublemaker. Baltasar Garzón's fight for the law
Since the Spanish coroner Baltasar Garzón induced the arrest of Chile's former dictator Pinochet in 1998, he has become a symbol for the persistent prosecution of mass murderers. Heribert Prantl from Süddeutsche Zeitung appreciates his fight for human rights on the occasion of the German PEN centre's award ceremony.
Werner Rügemer
Public Private Partnership. Looting the state
The tax cuts enacted by Germany's new centre-right government financially ruins the municipalities. As a way out, the government suggests – once again – Public Private Partnership. Publicist Werner Rügemer explores the career of a failed concept, from its origins in the UK to the current situation in Germany. This odyssey demonstrates: it is just another wave of privatisation of public goods – at the expense of the state and its citizens.
Camille Logeay and Thomas Weiß
The home-made deficit. The decline of real wages and the calamity of social security
The worldwide economic crisis was neither caused by the labour market, nor by the welfare state. However, Germany is being governed as if this was the case. Economists Camille Logeay and Thomas Weiß show that it was rather the decline in real wages which contributed to the crisis – and had a negative effect on social security contributions. Their conclusion: if wages had not fallen behind productivity, there would not have been the much-discussed deficit of social security.
Martin Allespach, Alex Demirovic and Lothar Wentzel
Give democracy a chance! Perspectives of labour unions in times of crisis
Rising social inequality has increased disenchantment with politics and a "crisis of democracy" – in this context, Martin Allespach, Alex Demirovic and Lothar Wentzel discuss labour unions' ideas for dealing with the economic crisis. To break the hegemony of neo-liberalism, they argue, a change towards democratization and a socio-ecological renewal is needed.
Jan Pehrke
Locked away. The victory of preventive detention over resocialization
For years, the number of felons who are held in "preventive detention" after their sentence expired has been on the rise. Journalist Jan Pehrke shows the problems of the concept of "preventive detention" and discusses the recent intervention of the European Court of Justice. His analysis shows that a further toughening of law – as suggested by the German government – violates human rights.
Published 2010-02-05
Original in German
Contributed by Blätter
© Blätter
© Eurozine
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