Republished on Global Geopolitics & Political Economy Al Jazeera English, May 14, 2012 See the article on the original website By Dean Baker One of the oddities of recent election results in Germany and elsewhere in northern Europe is the rise of the Pirate Party. This party received 7.8 percent of the vote in North [...]
GERMANY: While Some Waste, Others Feast
January 21, 2012 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Julio Godoy HAMBURG, Jan 20, 2012 (IPS) – Shortly before midnight last Saturday, Alexander, a 24-year-old law student, stepped out of his small apartment in Hamburg and set off for a jaunt around the local supermarkets to pilfer their garbage containers. Alex, who did not want his [...]
LIBYA: Broad German Consensus Against A ‘Risky War’
March 20, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Julio Godoy BERLIN, Mar 19, 2011 (IPS) – The decision by the German government not to support the U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last Thursday to establish a "no-fly zone" in Libyan airspace, expresses a widespread concern in Germany against military interventions abroad. The German government abstained, [...]
EU: Family Ties with Rich Cousin Germany Turn Bittersweet
February 25, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Julio Godoy BERLIN, Feb 24, 2011 (IPS) – In terms of economics, the European Union (EU) includes one country – Germany – that is both friend and foe to the 27-member community, and their relationship has turned markedly bittersweet on the road to recovery after the global [...]
German Govt ‘Crying Wolf’ on Terrorist Attacks
December 2, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Julio Godoy BERLIN, Dec 2, 2010 (IPS) – Government officials in Germany are being accused of manipulating threats of terrorism to induce public hysteria, even while warning against such reactions. The self-contradictory approach has prompted German citizens to call the terror warnings "farcical" and "negligent." In mid-November, [...]
Germany, Ireland, and eurozone politics
November 22, 2010 By
Republished on Global Geopolitics & Political Economy "This article was originally published in the independent online magazine www.opendemocracy.net " Link to the original article on openDemocracy.net Katinka Barysch, 22 November 2010 The international bailout of Ireland’s economy is another epic moment in the crisis of the eurozone. Angela Merkel’s government in Berlin is, as ever, [...]
Germany Receives Kudos Mixed with Criticism
October 28, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Richard Johnson IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis PARIS (IDN) – Germany has been praised for its development cooperation efforts aimed at ushering in a more just world. But kudos come with criticism couched in diplomatic jargon. The essence of the message to Berlin is: continue to consolidate your strength but [...]
Bridge to Nowhere – Road to Disaster
August 27, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Julio Godoy IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint BERLIN (IDN) – Practitioners of realpolitik would not claim they are poets, very much in the way that they do dismiss they are utopians. As former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, neither a poet nor utopian, once famously put it: If you have visions, [...]
Mediterranean Bailout – German Virtue or Necessity?
May 11, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS Julio Godoy BERLIN, May 11 (IPS) – Under pressure from its European Union (EU) peers and confronted with the undeniable realities of the Greek financial collapse, the German government has finally given up its resistance to a multinational bailout programme for the Mediterranean EU member states. During an urgent [...]
Bringing in the Bystanders – Germany and Japan
April 18, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IDN By Yilmaz Akyuz* IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint GENEVA (IDN) – In the debate on global stability and growth attention is often focussed exclusively on U.S.-China rebalancing, to the neglect of the role that could be played by two other major economies, Germany and Japan. These countries, like China, have been running [...]
