A Card to Play for Cuba's Freedom- February 20, 2008 The long-awaited "resignation" of Fidel Castro may give both Cubans and Americans a chance to escape the trap they've been in for more than four decades. Fidel's brother Ral will now officially become Cuba's maximum leader, a role he has held unofficially throughout Castro's long debility. That the Cuban leadership has finally reached the point where it must announce a changing of the dictatorial guard indicates this is a good time for the United States to suggest a different and more hopeful...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021902334.html?nav=r... New Europe, Old Russia- February 6, 2008 Russia and the European Union are neighbors geographically. But geopolitically they live in different centuries. A 21st-century European Union, with its noble ambition to transcend power politics and build an order based on laws and institutions, confronts a Russia that behaves like a traditional 19th-century power. Both are shaped by their histories. The supranational, legalistic E.U. spirit is a response to the conflicts of the 20th century, when nationalism and power politics twice destroyed.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/05/AR2008020502879.html?nav=r... |