Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

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Misrule of the Few How the Oligarchs Ruined Greece By Pavlos Eleftheriadis Since the early 1990s, a handful of oligarchs has dominated Greece’s economy and politics. So long as these elites have a vested interest in keeping things as they are, the country will never fully find its way out of crisis.

What Heidegger Was Hiding Unearthing the Philosopher’s Anti-Semitism By Gregory Fried Scholars have long known that Martin Heidegger was a Nazi, but many doubted that his philosophy had anything to do with Hitler’s ideology. Now Peter Trawny, drawing on Heidegger’s hidden notebooks, argues that the philosopher’s anti-Semitism was deeply entwined with his ideas.

The Good War?  What Went Wrong in Afghanistan -- and How to Make It Right By Peter Tomsen More than 13 years after 9/11, the Afghan war is far from over, even if Washington insists that the U.S. role in it will soon come to an end. Three recent books help explain why, and what Washington needs to do next to protect the gains that have been made.

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Warrior Diplomat A Green Beret’s Battles from Washington to Afghanistan By Michael G. Waltz “[Waltz] stitches together the long thirteen-year arc of this story as few others could, from front line to the conference tables of policy makers in Washington and Europe. This is a book that needs to be read to understand what really happened over the last decade-plus in Afghanistan—and why.” —Lieutenant General (Ret.) Dave Barno, former commander, Combined Forces Command in Afghanistan Click here for more information.

Faulty Powers Who Started the Ukraine Crisis? By Michael McFaul; Stephen Sestanovich; John J. Mearsheimer Responding to Mearsheimer's controversial essay blaming the West for the Ukraine crisis, McFaul and Sestanovich put the blame back on Putin and his ideological extremism, denying that NATO expansion provoked him. Mearsheimer replies.

Put It in Writing How the West Broke Its Promise to Moscow By Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson Russian leaders often claim the United States reneged on a promise not to expand NATO after the Cold War. They aren't lying: although Washington never...

Rabat's Undoing Why the Moroccan Monarchy Should be Worried By Intissar Fakir and Maati Monjib Arab Spring–driven reforms might have seemed inconsequential when they were introduced in 2011. But they may be changing Morocco’s political system more than anticipated.

The Land of Milk and Cotton How U.S. Protectionism Distorts Global Trade By J. P. Singh Earlier this month, Brazil and the United States struck a landmark trade agreement over a longtime point of contention: cotton. The deal—the United States pays a hefty sum to Brazilian cotton farmers in return for an opportunity to continue subsidizing its own...

Staying Out of Syria Why the United States Shouldn't Enter the Civil War—But Why It Might Anyway By Steven Simon Obama faces a tragic choice between restraint against ISIS to avoid entanglement in Syria’s civil war or full engagement against ISIS with an eye to regime change and the reconstruction and stabilization of a devastated country. After Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, we have a...

Son of Enron? Alibaba's Risky Corporate Structure By Paul Gillis In September, Alibaba Group launched the largest IPO in history, raising $25 billion from investors keen to own a slice of China’s most successful e-commerce company. For the moment, the potential for vast wealth overrode concerns about the unusual corporate structure and...

The Law of Rule China's Judiciary After the Fourth Plenum  By Rebecca Liao The Fourth Plenum took a bureaucratic view of the judiciary, treating it as an ally to the regime in improving governance rather than as the people’s advocate against that regime.

Free Money Europe's Quiet Financial Revolution By Hugo Dixon Europe's capital markets union is still a slogan in search of a policy program. But if it helps the continent develop new sources of finance, it could be hugely beneficial for all.

More Change, More Future Four More Years for Brazil's Dilma Rousseff By Kathryn Hochstetler In her victory speech on Sunday night, Rousseff promised to reform politics, combat corruption, and rejuvenate the industrial economy. Most Brazilians, including her opponents' supporters, probably do want those things, but it will be even harder for Rousseff to deliver them...

The Tunisia Model Did Tunis Win the Arab Spring? By Brian Klaas and Marcel Dirsus On October 26, Tunisians will finally have a real and unrestricted choice at the polls. Other transitioning regimes in the Middle East and the world should take note: Democracy is not about exclusion, but about giving people a genuine choice—even, or especially, when it’s an...

Asia for the Asians Why Chinese-Russian Friendship Is Here To Stay By Gilbert Rozman Moscow and Beijing have disagreements about the future order they envision for their regions. But they agree that the geopolitical order of the East should be in opposition to that of the West—and that has led to significantly closer bilateral relations.

Ukraine's Democracy Problem Letter From Kiev's 217th Electoral District By Alina Polyakova A militant nationalist and a crook walk into a bar. It might sound like the beginning of a clichéd joke, but in Ukraine’s parliamentary elections, the characters are all too real, and the “bar” is Electoral District 217 in the country’s capital, Kiev.

In Perspective How to Talk About the Ottawa Shooting By Jonathan Kay A decade from now, Canadians will remember this week as one in which two mentally unstable Islamic converts staged amateurish, low-yield, one-man suicide attacks on Canadian soldiers. They will not remember it as a turning point in the nation’s history.

Foreign Affairs Focus: Max Boot on Small Wars By Gideon Rose and Max Boot Washington simply doesn’t have the luxury of simply avoiding long wars against brutal insurgencies. Instead, it needs to figure out how to fight them better.