International Reports 3/2009

Ausgabe 3/2009 der Auslandsinformationen der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

by Gerhard Wahlers

There are many reasons for the current global financial crisis, one of them being the monetary policy of the US Central Bank, which was mismanaged for a long time: when the Asian markets and banks collapsed in 1997, the US government feared a decline in global demand and sought to cushion it by giving a new impetus to the country’s economy. The Fed lowered the interest rates but kept them low for too long. The foundations for the stock market bubble were laid.

by Norbert Wagner

The origins of think tanks go back to antiquity. The Greek dramatist Aristophanes tells us that Socrates taught his pupils not only thievery and disregard of the law in his Athens ”workshop”, but also the fine art of turning weak arguments into strong ones. Nowadays, the United States is the country with the highest number of these public policy research organizations (or ”think tanks”) worldwide.

by Norbert Wagner, Ursula Carpenter

Washington’s Foreign and Security Policy vis-à-vis Islamabad after the Presidential Elections in the USA

During his election campaign, the new US president, Barack Obama, won over many of his voters by promising change and a new beginning. Now, after his election, people in Pakistan and Afghanistan are not the only ones who ask themselves whether and how these assurances are to be fulfilled, especially in US foreign policy. Will the new leadership in Washington bring about a fundamental change in America’s course, including that vis-à-vis Pakistan?

by Babak Khalatbari, Jan-Frederik Kremer

Subsahara-Afrika braucht ein starkes Südafrika

Sub-Saharan Africa, marred by genocides, wars, and a death toll of several millions, has been regarded as the region’s crisis hotspot ever since the end of the Cold War. Until the beginning of 2009, six UN Blue Helmet missions had been deployed in the region; more than half of all UN security resolutions focused on the problems of sub-Saharan Africa.

by Martin Pabst, Klaus Freiherr von der Ropp

When he was assassinated by soldiers in his palace on March 2, Joao Bernardo Vieira, President of Guinea-Bissau, had been in office for a total of 23 years. His leadership style was controversial. The country is desperately poor, with unstable political structures and a meagre subsistence economy.

by Stefan Gehrold, Ute Gierczynski-Bocandé