Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Sign up here. March 26, 2024 | |
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Fareed on Why Biden Is Unpopular Despite a Strong Economy |
"In recent decades, globalization and technology have moved so fast that they have left many people in advanced societies deeply anxious," Fareed said on Sunday's GPS. "And when people see their world in flux, they often move not left on economics but right on culture. They want the world to stop changing so fast, and they listen to politicians to promise to take them back to 'the good old days,' to make America great AGAIN. The left's instinct is to solve this problem by spending money. Biden's policies have disproportionately helped people in rural areas without college degrees—in other words, Trump voters. But I doubt this will make them into Democrats. The left needs to play more effectively on the new crossroads of politics, where culture and class have replaced economics." |
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Can the US and Israel Agree on a Plan? |
The US and Israel have split openly over the war in Gaza: On Monday the US abstained from a UN Security Council vote on a ceasefire resolution, allowing it to pass. As Israel's military continues its campaign against Hamas, in retaliation for the terrorist group's Oct. 7 massacres, commentators doubt the US and Israel can find agreement on how to proceed. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire. "We are about to witness (the) most intense famine since the second world war," humanitarian activist Alex de Waal writes in a Guardian op-ed. (Not the biggest, given Gaza's population size, de Waal writes, but the worst.) "The Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) system, set up 20 years ago, provides the most authoritative assessments of humanitarian crises. Its figures for Gaza are the worst ever by any metric." And yet, New York Times columnist David Brooks points out, Israel's military estimates thousands of Hamas fighters remain in Gaza. The White House wants Israel to stop its military campaign; Israeli leaders want to launch an operation in the Gaza–Egypt border town of Rafah and fight Hamas to the finish. Talking with security experts, Brooks hears no workable strategy to both protect Gazan civilians and destroy Hamas. A classic counterinsurgency strategy—clearing an area of insurgents, holding it, and rebuilding it—wouldn't work, as Gazans would view those areas skeptically, Brooks writes. A more limited, targeted operation might not defeat Hamas's remaining force. Simply stopping would allow Hamas to retain Rafah as a "beachhead," Brooks writes. Practical solutions are missing, some say: At the Middle East Institute, Brian Katulis laments that "neither the United States nor Israel has sufficiently answered key strategic questions about the conflict, including how to define victory over Hamas, how to address the growing humanitarian crisis for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and what both countries see as a realistic outcome when the war is over." |
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After ISIS-K—the Afghan offshoot of the global terrorist organization—claimed responsibility for the horrific attack on a Moscow-area concert venue, the Financial Times editorial board notes that Russia is not immune to jihadist violence. The rest of the world should take note, too, the FT warns: "While Isis itself may be somewhat diminished, events in Moscow show the threat of violence from its offshoots remains very real." Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to blame Ukraine, citing very thin evidence, The Economist writes; the magazine predicts "the Kremlin is unlikely to deal with its security vulnerabilities systematically" after the attack. At The New Yorker, Joshua Yaffa writes: "As for what Putin does now, the 2004 terrorist attack in Beslan"—where a Chechen-separatist group took hostages at a school—"may be instructive. In the aftermath of that tragedy, Putin moved not to reform Russia's security agencies, for example, or to hold an independent inquiry on the security forces' decision to fire heavy explosives at the school but, rather, to roll back nascent democratic reforms. The Kremlin cancelled direct elections of regional governors in favor of Presidential appointments; it also abolished single-mandate districts in the Duma, removing the last independent voices in parliament." That said, Yaffa writes, "it's hard to imagine the Kremlin doing more to empower the F.S.B." or to escalate attacks on Ukraine. |
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Emerging Markets Keep Emerging |
Pointing out a global-economic bright spot, Rockefeller International chair and former Morgan Stanley head of emerging markets and chief global strategist Ruchir Sharma writes in a Financial Times column that several large emerging markets look encouragingly stable. Recent years have featured warnings about fiscal stability and potential debt defaults in the developing world, but Sharma cites a series of countries—some of them erstwhile causes for major concern—that have shored up their finances and are looking better. "Emerging world powerhouses such as India and Indonesia weathered the turbulence of recent years in solid shape and are widely recognised for their success," Sharma writes. "Now many of the emerging world's most troubled economies are reforming their way towards recovery as well, and markets are starting to reward them for it. They include most prominently Turkey, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya, and they carry some weight. All five of these reforming countries are in the 40 largest emerging economies, so their turn for the better is reinforcing the global economic recovery as well." |
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