Will Domestic Politics Paralyze World Politics in 2012?

As revelers in New York's Times Square celebrated the arrival of 2012, pundits and scholars gazed into their crystal balls to make forecasts about the new year.

As the world turns the page to 2012, watchers of world politics have unleashed an array of forecasts for the new year, ranging from the optimistic to the pessimistic to everywhere in between.  One interesting prediction is contributed by Financial Times blogger and foreign affairs expert Gideon Rachman. Rachman writes that efforts to achieve international cooperation–particularly on global economic issues–will be hindered in 2012 by a “perilous political paradox.”  Rachman describes this dilemma as a frustrating catch-22:

“But as the economic position deteriorates, the actions demanded of national leaders become ever more drastic and harder to sell at home: take part in big bail-outs of indigent nations, subsidise wildly unpopular bankers, work patiently with countries that large parts of your own population believe are bankrupt or dishonest.  In 2012, the world’s most important leaders are likely to be asked to do all of the above — and will find it ever harder to deliver. The conditions of recession, instability and panic that demand international co-operation also make voters angrier and less generous.”

This dilemma is exacerbated by the fact that leaders in many major powers will be preoccupied with elections and leadership transitions at home in 2012.  These domestic developments will both (a) decrease the time and energy available for diplomacy and (b) increase the pressure for leaders to “pander” to domestic groups’ parochial concerns rather than engaging in far-sighted efforts to save the global economy.

These forecasts highlight an argument that political scientists have been making for decades: though they are sometimes treated as distinct spheres, domestic and international politics are intertwined in innumerable ways.  And the “causal arrow” runs in both directions: domestic political factors, including regime type, interest groups, and public opinion, shape states’ foreign policy behavior, while international economic and political factors affect political outcomes at home.

What do you think?  Will domestic politics trump international considerations as leaders make decisions in 2012?  How might that affect outcomes in world politics, in areas ranging from security to economics to the environment?  Do you find Gideon Rachman’s arguments persuasive, or does he exaggerate the power of domestic politics?

What’s Going on at the IMF?

International Monetary Fund Headquarters, Washington DC

Once the unabashed advocate for cutting government regulation and liberalizing economies worldwide, there have been recent murmurings from the International Monetary Fund moving in a dramatically different direction. This is not to suggest that critics of the IMF—most notably Joseph Stiglitz—have run out of ammunition. Rather, as Duncan Green has been reporting on his Oxfam blog, the IMF appears to be opening up to new proposals. For most, the concession that the state may have a role to play in development is hardly a dramatic finding. But from the organization that promoted cuts in government spending and liberalization of capitalism markets as the solution to nearly every economic and financial crisis from Asia to the United Kingdom, from Russia to Brazil, it’s quite a concession.

We’re specially looking at three developments, all covered by Duncan. First, in early February, the IMF began to rethink its traditional focus on inflation. In a paper co-authored by the IMF’s chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, the organization conceded that it had become too focused on inflation at expense of other goals, like fiscal policy, interest rate stability, and—wait for it—preventing global financial crises like the one that rocked the world beginning in 2008.

Later the same month, responding to increasing pressure from countries like Brazil, the IMF began to rethink its traditional opposition to capital controls.  For years, the IMF had promoted open financial markets as a central component of development strategies. But such openness carried significant risk of fostering financial instability. We saw this, for example, during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In 1997, the IMF prescribed cutting capital flows as part of its reform package. But in 2010, it reversed course, conceding that capital controls, under certain circumstances,  may be an effective part of the policy toolkit to manage capital flows.

In April, the IMF announced its most dramatic change to date, announcing its support for establishing a “Robin Hood Tax” intended to force banks to pay for the direct and indirect costs associated with government interventions to bail out the banking sector following the global financial meltdown. While this initiative has stalled amid strong divisions between major players—particularly between the United States and France—the willingness with which the IMF embraced the proposal stood in stark contrast to its earlier positions on financial deregulation and lowering tax rates.

Now, in a new working paper published this month, two IMF economists draw a connection between inequality and the outbreak of financial crises, concluding that higher levels of inequality make an economy more prone to the kinds of crises that have rocked the global economy in recent years. They conclude that preventing future economic crises may depend on reducing the total level of inequality in any given society.

Duncan Green is right. They must be putting something in the water at IMF headquarters. How else do we explain the dramatic shifts taking place there?

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Afghan elections took place last week, and both sides are claiming victory at the polls. President Hamid Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion which displaced the Taliban government, declared victory on Friday. Meanwhile, his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, accused Karzai of rigging the poll but said that Karzai would not win enough votes in the first round to avoid an October runoff election. Voter turnout in the election had declined sharply from the previous presidential elections, amid accusations of voter fraud and threats by the Taliban to cut off any fingers marked with the indelible purple ink identifying voters. The election is an important component of President Barack Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan, where the United States has maintained a troop presence for more than seven years. 

In other news from the last week:

1. The Scottish government on Thursday released Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi from prison, returning him to his native Libya. Al-Megrahi had been extradited from Libya to the United Kingdom in 1999 in exchange for the United Nations agreeing to drop sanctions imposed on Libya. Al-Megrahi was convicted by a Scottish jury of conspiracy for his involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan-Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Although sentenced to life in prison, al-Megrahi served 8 ½ years before being released on compassionate grounds on Thursday. Al-Megrahi has terminal prostate cancer. The United States condemned al-Megrahi’s release and his welcome by Libya’s President, Muammar Gaddafi.

2. Efforts to protect intellectual property gained a boost in China and the United Kingdom last week. In China, the founders and executives of Tomato Garden, a website which that provided free downloads of Microsoft Windows XP and other programs, were convicted of piracy and sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison and a fine of $146,000 each. According to Microsoft, approximately 90 percent of all software sales in China are counterfeit, costing the company an estimated $6.68 billion in sales annually. The Business Software Alliance, the leading lobbying firm for the software industry, celebrated the decision, noting that “This shows that the government [of China] is really taking action.” In the past, the United States has accused the Chinese government of not doing enough to protect intellectual property rights, going so far as to threaten suit before the World Trade Organization.

Meanwhile, the British government has begun consideration of a number of proposals intended to reduce illegal file sharing in the United Kingdom by 70 percent. The proposals under consideration now could slow the speed of internet connections for people found to be downloading protected content, and access to some sites could be blocked altogether.

3. A prolonged drought in Kenya has resulted in a 50 percent increase in the number of people requiring food aid, according to a report released by the World Food Programme. The report also notes that some regions of the country are suffering from shortages of power and water. Although triggered by the ongoing drought, the country’s weak coalition government faces widespread popular discontent as a result of its inability to carry out much needed political and economic reform.

4. Despite some positive developments over the past several weeks in the United States, Germany, and elsewhere, the global economic crisis continues. On Thursday, the government of Mexico announced the economy shrank by a record 10.3 percent in the second quarter of this year, the fastest rate ever for the country. The global economic crisis has affected Mexico particularly had, as the country has been impacted by the U.S. recession, declining oil revenues, and the H1N1 swine flu virus which decimated the country’s tourism industry.

5. A series of bomb attacks killed almost 100 and wounded almost 500 people in Baghdad on Wednesday. The attacks, which mark the deadliest day since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the city in June, targeted two central locations and the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy and many Iraqi government buildings are located. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, they nevertheless illustrate the challenges facing the Iraqi government.

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The political situation in Iran continued to evolve over the past week. Last week, a standoff between President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, culminated in the dismissal of two conservatives from the cabinet and the firing of Vice President (and close ally of Ahmadi-Nejad), Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. The deteriorating relationship between Ahmadi-Nejad and Khamenei further undermines the political stability of Iran, already weakened by June’s disputed presidential elections and the subsequent protests which have rocked the country. Protests have been a regular feature of the Iranian political scene for the past month, including clashes between police and opposition supporters like those that occurred on Thursday.  Although the Iranian government last week released hundreds of people arrested for participating in the post-election protests, the trial of 100 of the most prominent detainees is moving forward. Critics of the regime have condemned the trial as a spectacle.

Meanwhile, three Americans were arrested on Saturday by Iranian security forces for allegedly entering the country illegally.  The three were camping in Kurdistan (near the Iraqi-Iranian border) when they crossed over into Iran. They have been transferred to the capital, Tehran, where they are currently being held.

In news from outside Iran in the last week:

1. Two statements by the Indian government last week dashed hopes of progress in multilateral negotiations. On Wednesday, India’s commerce secretary, Rahul Khullar, dismissed hopes of rekindling World Trade Organization talks as unrealistic in the current global political and economic climate. The current round of talks, referred to as the Doha agenda, has been under negotiation for nine years. The talks have been suspended numerous times, largely as a result of the inability of WTO member states to agree on binding cuts to agricultural subsidies. According to Khullar, progress is unlikely because, in the context of the global economic crisis, political leaders are focused on job losses and the lack of domestic economic growth, a focus which makes it difficult to move forward on a new global trade deal.

In another development, India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, said on Friday that India would not agree to binding emission cuts for at least ten years, potentially throwing climate talks scheduled to take place in Copenhagen in December into disarray. India and China are both dismissive of western pressure to agree to greenhouse gas reductions, believing that such reductions would undermine future economic growth and development in their countries. But without the participation of China and India in climate change negotiations, progress will be far more difficult, particularly given the historical U.S. negotiating position that it will not be bound by any climate change agreement that does not also include reductions for China and India.

2. Over the weekend, Russia concluded negotiations to expand the Russian troop presence in Kyrgyzstan. The expanded Russian presence is part of Russia’s broader effort to reassert itself in its traditional sphere of influence, an effort which included the development of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a counterpart to NATO which includes Russia and six other former Soviet Republics, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Belarus. The United States and Russia have been competing for influence in Kyrgyzstan, which occupies an important geo-strategic position, and Kyrgyzstan’s president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has skillfully negotiated between competing Russian and American interests. In February, after receiving $2 billion in aid from the Russian government, Bakiyev ordered the United States to leave Kyrgyzstani bases by June. The bases are part of the U.S. air transit route to supply forces in Afghanistan. After the United States agreed to triple rent payments for use of the base and to offer additional financial assistance to the Kyrgyzstani government, Bakiyev rescinded his request that the U.S. withdraw.

3. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has once again sparked widespread criticism, this time among human rights groups. At issue is the latest development in the president’s campaign against “media terrorism”—a new law which would punish journalists and their sources with up to four years in jail for “causing panic,” “disturbing social peace” or compromising national security.

In an unrelated development, the government of Venezuela has “frozen” diplomatic and economic relations with its neighbor, Colombia. Relations between the two countries have been poor since March 2008, when Colombia launched a raid into Ecuador, a close ally of Venezuela. The decision to suspend relations came after Colombia accused Venezuela of supplying rocket launchers to Marxist rebels in Colombia.

4. Clashes between security forces and an Islamist sect in three states in Nigeria continued last week despite the death of Islamist leader Mohammed Yusuf in police custody. More than 150 people have died in five days of fighting in Nigeria, where a sharp economic and political divide between the largely Muslim north and the predominately Christian south has been exacerbated by the country’s declining economic situation. The fighting in the northern part of the country complicates efforts to address the longstanding crisis in the southern, oil producing region of the country, where conflicts between militant separatist groups and the government have continued off-and-on for the better part of a decade. Taken together, these conflicts represent the most significant challenge to the Nigerian government since independence.

5. The International Monetary Fund on Friday issued a statement intended to play down the standoff between the Fund and the government of Iceland. At issue are the conditionalities imposed on the government of Iceland as a requirement for the dispersal of $2.1 billion in IMF loans. The government of Iceland has been under immense political pressure regarding the status of foreign savings deposits in Icelandic banks, which collapsed last year as part of the global economic crisis. The IMF is requiring that the government guarantee all foreign savings deposits, but the government of Iceland has so far refused, bowing to domestic political pressure not to compensate account holders.

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The turmoil over last week’s Iranian elections continued into this week, with thousands of people defying a statement  by the country’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and orders by President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad and the country’s Revolutionary Guard banning such protests. Over the weekend, hundreds of supporters of Mir-Hossein Moussavi were arrested during protests. Moussavi’s supporters believe the election was rigged, but international observers and foreign governments have so far refused to comment.

In other news from the previous week:

1. The World Bank issued a statement urging the developed world to focus on the global economy in their recovery efforts. The collapse of global credit markets over the last year, the Bank noted, had led to a dramatic decline in private capital flows, with investment in developing countries declining from $1,200 billion in 2007 to an estimated $363 billion this year. Meanwhile, announcement of the new stimulus package by the Chinese government led the World Bank to increase its forecasts for the Chinese economy this year. But the decision of the Chinese government to include a ‘Buy China’ policy in its stimulus package has led to increasing tensions over the specter of protectionism in the global recovery effort.

2. French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a rare address to the country’s parliament at the Palace of Versailles this week. For more than 130 years, the French President had been constitutionally prohibited from entering parliament—an attempt to ensure legislative independence. But after the constitution was amended last year—in the name of increasingly parliamentary oversight—the restriction was removed. French Green and Communist parties boycotted the speech in protest of what they see as an attempt to increase the power of the French presidency. Sarkozy used the opportunity to outline measures intended to address the problem of rapidly detiorating public finances, sparked by the global economic crisis. In the speech, Sarkozy rejected the introduction of austerity measures, instead focusing on the need to protect jobs.

3. The situation in Iraq deteriorated over the past week, as the number of bombings as increased. On Saturday, a large truck bomb exploded outside a Shi’ite mosque in the Kurdish town of Kirkuk. The attack, the deadliest single attack in more than a year, killed 73 people. Meanwhile, a series of smaller attacks in Baghdad killed 15 people on Monday. The declining security situation comes as the United States prepares to begin its withdrawal from Iraqi towns, handing responsibility for day-to-day security over to Iraqi police by the end of June.

4. The speaker of the parliament in Somalia has issued a call for neighboring countries to send in troops to help prop up the country’s fragile government. The security situation in Somalia remains grim. On Thursday, the government’s security minister, Omar Hashi Aden, and more than 20 others were killed in a suicide attack by Islamic militants known as al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab seeks to overthrow the country’s western-backed government and impose its vision of strict sharia law in Somalia. So far, international assistance has been limited, and al-Shabaab has confined the influence of the government to the country’s capital, Mogadishu. Meanwhile, according to United Nations estimates, some 122,000 civilians have been forced to flee as a result of fighting which began in early May.

5. Tensions between the government of Hugo Chávez and the anti-government television station Globovisión have increased in Venezuela in recent days. Chávez accuses the station of “media terrorism” as a result of its critical coverage of his government, particularly following a minor earthquake which hit the capital, Caracdas, in early May. According to observers, the station makes an easy target for Chávez, who has stepped up his efforts to transform Venezuelan society and economy in recent months.

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A new report issued by the International Monetary Fund on Saturday suggests that the globally economy will contract by 1.3 percent in 2009 with a slow recovery beginning in 2010. While the United States has been pushing countries to expand stimulus spending, the IMF said that existing stimulus spending already committed for 2009 should be sufficient to address the crisis. A Friday meeting of the finance ministers of the G7 countries was more cautious, concluding that, “the pace of decline in our economies has slowed and some signs of stabilization are emerging,” but simultaneously warned that “downside risks persist.”

In news outside the global economic crisis from the last week:

1. The outbreak of a new flue strain has raised concern in Mexico, as 68 people have died and more than 1,000 have been infected. The World Health Organization is monitoring the situation to determine if it is likely to reach pandemic status. While the Mexican government is urging people to remain calm, authorities have already canceled more than 500 public events and many residents in Mexico City have opted to stay home rather than travel for shopping and work. Tests have also confirmed the virus has made people in California, Texas, Kansas, and New York ill.

2. Elections in Iceland have produced the country’s first center-left government. The previous government of Iceland had been forced to resign as a result of the devastating impact of the global financial crisis on the country. Preliminary election results give Johanna Sigurdardottir’s Social Democrats 30 percent of the vote. With their coalition partner, the Left Greens’ 22 percent of the vote, the coalition appears well-positioned to drive the political agenda in Iceland. Sigurdardottir becomes the first openly gay person elected head of state in the modern world. The first item on her agenda: Icelandic membership in the European Union.

3. While the Obama administration is hoping to resume the six-party talks with North Korea, the government of North Korea appears to be taking a more hardline stance. Earlier this month it test fired a long-range missile, sparking a confrontation with the UN Security Council. Last week, the government of North Korea last week announced it would put two U.S. reporters on trial, charging them with illegal entry and “hostile acts.” Additionally, after expelling international atomic inspectors two weeks ago, North Korea has announced its intention to resume plutonium extraction. It is widely believed that North Korea already possesses enough plutonium for six to eight nuclear bombs. According to some observers, the deteriorating relations between North Korea and the West may be part of the country’s efforts to force the United States into direct, bilateral negotiations.

4. The sharp upsurge of violence in Iraq, including two suicide attacks that killed 75 people outside a Shia shrine in Baghdad on Friday, have raised concerns that Iraq is sliding back into civil war. Recent attacks raise the concern of sectarian violence, suppressed by a strong U.S. presence over the past year, but never entirely defeated.

5. Reversing a longstanding policy of the Bush administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Thursday that the United States would be willing to work with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas so long as the organization met international demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist.  The Bush administration had refused to work with Hamas, which has effectively controlled the Palestinian government since it defeated its rival, Fatah, in elections in 2007. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure to engage meaningfully in international diplomacy and to be seen acting.

And because it was such a busy week internationally, here are two bonus stories from this week:

6. The rebel Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka on Sunday declared a unilateral ceasefire, a move almost immediately rejected by the government. An operation launched by the government last month has effectively confined the Tamil Tigers to a small enclave in the northern part of the country, and the government is expected to announce the defeat of the Tigers any day. But the United Nations has described the situation as a humanitarian disaster, with more than 6,500 civilians already killed and as many as 100,000 refugees created as a result of the fighting.

7. It was announced on Friday that China has become the world’s fifth largest holder of gold reserves, with 1,054 tones of gold. Seen as part of a broader strategy to diversify its nearly $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the government of China has slowly been building its gold reserves over the several years. However, even with the recent purchases, China has a level of gold reserves (as a percent of its total reserves) far below that of the United States and other developed countries.

Assessing the G20

The G20 summit has now concluded with a final communiqué outlining the common points of agreement between participants. The blogosphere has already parsed the outcomes, and the reviews are decidedly mixed. The meeting failed to create of a stricter system of global financial regulation; nor did it establish global stimulus package, two of the most important (and admittedly the most controversial) items on the agenda.

According to the Baseline Scenario emerging markets (like China, India, and Brazil) were the big winners, as the Europeans lost control of the International Monetary Fund’s managing director position. Most observers, however, were much more sanguine. Blogging for Foreign Policy, David Rothkopf described the meeting as important for its symbolism but falling short in substance.  Paul Krugman generously described the outcome as “better than I expected,” pointing to the increase in funding for the IMF.  And Dani Rodrock called the outcome “a glass half full.”

But in the Financial Times, Chris Giles notes that the G20’s communiqué likely overstates the actual increases in funding for the IMF. While Barack Obama and Gordon Brown were touting the $1.1 trillion in new funding for the IMF, the actual figure was probably far less than that…probably closer to $100 billion, according to Giles.

In reality, the final outcome of the G20 summit probably will do little to address the global economic crisis. As Clive Crook concludes,

In the longer term, it matters even more that the governments of some huge and (until recently) fast-growing economies, such as Brazil, China, and India, are being given a bigger voice…Valuable as entrenching the G-20 and reviving the IMF may be, though, the most urgent need at this summit was to deal with the immediate danger of a worsening global slump. Designing a coordinated fiscal stimulus to expand global demand, keep people at work, and relieve the pressure for competitive devaluation and new trade restrictions — the means by which governments traditionally try to export their unemployment — was the prize that mattered most.

While Brazil, China, and India will almost certainly garner greater influence in the international financial institutions as a result of the shift, such a shift was likely to occur with or without the summit. China’s $2 trillion is U.S. dollar-denominated assets makes it a critically important player in international economic discussions.  And its suggestion of moving away from the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency demonstrates its willingness to use its position to influence international talks.

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Recent data about the U.S. economy indicates that the current crisis is worse than economists had believed. On Wednesday, the government announced that initial jobless claims spiked unexpectedly, reaching the highest levels since 1982. About 667,000 people made initial claims fro the week ending February 21, sending the total number of unemployed people in the United States over the 5 million mark for the first time in the country’s history. The official unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent, the highest level since 1992. Consumer sentiment also fell to record lows in February, as housing prices fell precipitously. Housing prices declined 18.5 percent over 2008, and have declined 26.7 percent from the peaks of July, 2006.  Although the Federal Reserve is forecasting an economic contraction of 0.5-1.3 percent this year with an unemployment rate of between 8.5 and 8.8 percent, many economists are offering more dire predictions, calling this the worst downturn in U.S. post-World War II history.  The U.S. economy shrank by an annualized 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 (its worst performance since the recession of 1982).

And now for five important stories outside the ongoing economic crisis:

1. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced a plan that would see the majority of U.S. forces withdrawn from Iraq by August 2010.  Obama’s plan was greatly coolly by anti-war Democrats, who were disappointed that the plan did not accelerate the drawdown in forces. Congressional Republicans appeared more supportive of the president’s plan.

2. The Bangladeshi army has reaffirmed its support for the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after an attempted mutiny by paramilitary forces was put down earlier this week. On Wednesday, a paramilitary force of border guards—the Bangladeshi Rifles—mutinied over a pay dispute, but violence quickly spread throughout the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. The government was able to reassert control over the region as members of the Bangladeshi Rifles surrendered. At least fifty people are believed dead in the fighting, and the whereabouts of 168 officers who were in the building where the mutiny began are still unaccounted for. The discovery of a mass grave in the building has led to speculation that the number of dead will rise. 

3. Tobias Billström, who is slated to become president of the European Union when Sweden takes over the position from the Czech Republic in July, has indicated that immigration reform will be on the agenda. Immigration and asylum have long been controversial issues in European politics, as countries have vastly different policies. But E.U. member states have been hesitant to transfer responsibility for coordinating policy to Brussels. Billström has suggested that the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg would have final discretion over asylum cases.

4. The new power-sharing government in Zimbabwe appears to be making good progress in addressing the economic meltdown in the country. According to the African Development Bank, Zimbabwe has made an impressive start on addressing the problems it faces. The ADB has called on Zimbabwe to make progress on repaying its external debt as a precondition for securing more outside assistance. The new Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangarai, has said that Zimbabwe urgently needs $5 billion in foreign assistance to repair the economy. Meanwhile, the power sharing agreement itself appears to be at risk, as President Robert Mugabe’s party has been accused of creating its own parallel government, effectively attempting to bypass the power-sharing agreement. Further, members of the opposition party remained jailed, and the push for land reform has intensified.

5. In an attempt to address growing concerns of farmers over poor forecasts, the government of Argentina has agreed to increase protectionist measures, including waiving some export tariffs and granting subsidies to small producers. Longstanding drought conditions in the country have led to declining yields, and farmers are forecasting the worst harvest in forty years. The crisis has exposed deep political divides in Argentina, resulting in a weakening in the ruling alliance and the resignation of four senators and two deputies over policy differences.

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The meeting of the Group of Seven, or G7, took place in Rome on Saturday.  And while anti-poverty campaigners appealed for the group to address the problem of increasing global inequality and rising poverty, the primary focus of the annual meeting was the global economic crisis.  Following the dispute over the inclusion (and subsequent removal) of buy-American provisions in the U.S. economic stimulus package, the G7 felt the need to include a commitment to use “the full range of policy tools” to address the global downturn while simultaneously renewing commitments to avoid protectionist measures.  This amid news that the Eurozone has now entered its worst slump in fifty years, with the Eurozone GDP falling 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, and the German GDP falling by 2.1 percent of the same period.  Amid the poor economic news, the European Central Bank is expected to cut its prime interest rate to 1.5 percent, its lowest rate ever.  The U.S. Federal Reserve’s federal funds rate has already been effectively reduced to 0 percent.

In other news from the previous week:

1.  A U.S. missile strike in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan (along the Afghan border) on Saturday killed at least 25 al Qaeda-linked militants.  The drone-launched missile was the third such strike since President Obama took office.  The Pakistani government has been undercut the influence of militants in the region, believed to be a bastion for al Qaeda.   But the continued strikes by the U.S. also threaten to undermine the legitimacy of the Pakistani government.

2. Israel announced it would not agree to a ceasefire with Hamas unless an Israeli soldier held since he was kidnapped in a cross-border raid in 2006.  The Israeli position appears to complicate efforts to reach a permanent ceasefire.  A series of rocket attacks and retaliatory strikes (or strikes and retaliatory rocket attacks, depending on whose press you read), has made establishing a lasting ceasefire between the combatants more difficult.  Further complicating the situation were Israeli elections held last week.  The elections handed Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadmina party a narrow one-seat victory over the rival center-right Likud party under Benjamin Netanyahu.  The close victory has left both parties scrambling to line up potential coalition partners, leaving the final outcome of the election uncertain.

3.  The outlook for the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe appeared to brighten a bit last week, as a unity government took office.  Under the terms of the agreement, Robert Mugabe will remain President of Zimbabwe.  His political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, will become the country’s prime minister.  The government of national unity appears to have—at least temporarily—brought to a close the country’s ongoing political crisis.  But how long this remains the case is unclear.  By Friday, the arrest of Roy Bennett, Tsvangarai’s nominee for deputy agriculture minister, on charges of treason raised questions about the degree to which the new government represents a real break with the past.    Further, the heavy lifting of addressing a national cholera outbreak and brining the country’s economy back from total collapse remains on the to-do list. 

4. The situation in Afghanistan appears to be deteriorating.   A series of bombings and well-coordinated attacks by gunmen over the last several days has left dozens of people dead.  While such attacks had become increasingly common in the Taliban-dominated areas along the Pakistani border, the most recent attacks occurred in what had historically been viewed as the safest region of the country—its capital, Kabul.  Analysts view the attacks as an indication of the increasing support and sophistication of Taliban-backed forces.  The attacks come amidst indications that the Obama administration is considering a request to increase by 30,000 the number of troops deployed to Afghanistan.

5. Disputes between European Union member states over the structure and nature of efforts to address the global economic crisis have led to tension within the Union.  On Tuesday, the Czech Republic’s prime minister (and current president of the European Union) accused the member state governments of engaging in policies that threaten to “deform” the Eurozone.  On Wednesday, in an indication of how serious the dispute is, the European Union scheduled two emergency summits to address the crisis, suppress protectionism, sustain employment, and prevent the bloc’s political fragmentation into old and new member states.

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The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum took place in Davos, Switzerland, over the weekend.  The forum is intended to provide world economic leaders an opportunity to meet to discuss issues of global importance.  The meeting is normally incredibly cordial, as the economic focus of the conference provides an opportunity to move beyond traditional political wrangling that characterizes official meetings of heads of state.  This year, however, the Gaza crisis prompted the Turkish prime minister to leave the meting in protest and tension filled the air.  In general, this year’s forum has been dominated by discussion of the global economic crisis  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned against a rising tide of protectionism similar to the trend that occurred leading into the Great Depression, while bankers cautioned the U.S. government against political interference in banking operations. 

In news outside Davos this week:

1.  Provincial elections in Iraq on Saturday were generally peaceful.  Although the final tally will take more than two weeks to complete, preliminary results indicate voter turnout was 51 percent, a slight decline from 2005.  Turnout in Sunni provinces, which had previously dismissed the electoral process as biased against their interests, was particularly high.  With more than 14,000 candidates competing for just 440 seats, there are bound to be a large number of disappointed political parties and candidates.  The question that worries observers now is: how do those who lose the vote respond?

2.  A last-ditch effort to craft a government of national unity in Zimbabwe appears to have been successful, as Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change agreed on Friday to join Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union, Popular Front to govern the country.  Once one of the wealthiest and most productive countries in the region, Zimbabwe has gradually collapsed into economic chaos.  With the unemployment rate at an estimated 95 percent, the World Food Programme estimates that up to 70 percent of the country’s population may require food aid in the next six months.  In an effort to deal with the crisis and bring the country’s rampant inflation—currently believed to be running as high as a quadrillion percent (that’s 1,000,000,000,000,000%, incase you’re wondering) under control, the government last week also removed restrictions on using foreign currencies for economic transactions within Zimbabwe.  It is now possible—indeed likely—that bread, gas, and other basic commodities will be priced in U.S. dollars, pound sterling, South African rand, or other foreign currencies.

3.  The crisis over the future of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which was at the heart of a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Russia lat year, has once again reemerged on the international stage.  Russia has announced plans to construct a new naval base in Abkhazia, a move which Georgia claims will undermine its national sovereignty.  Meanwhile, in an apparent overture to the west, Russia has suspended plans to deploy a missile station in Kaliningrad.  Russia had announced its intention to deploy cruise missile batteries in the enclave last year after the United States moved forward with plans to deploy its missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. 

4.  The Mexican government announced on Tuesday that the country is likely headed into recession, with the economy estimated to contract by as much as 1.8 percent in 2009.  The Mexican economy is heavily dependent on exports to the Untied States, with exports to the U.S. accounting for 80 percent of all Mexican exports and representing about 25 percent of all economic activity in the country.  Already, Mexico’s central bank has cut interest rates in an attempt to stimulate the domestic economy.  Meanwhile, an ongoing conflict between powerful drug cartels and the central government has led some analysts to forecast that Mexico could achieve “failed state” status if it is unable to assert control over the cartels.

5.  Although the fragile ceasefire in Gaza has officially held, a number of fractures are beginning to appear.  On Thursday, Hamas launched rockets into Israel in response to an Israeli airstrike against a suspected arms factory in Gaza on Wednesday.  President Barack Obama named George Mitchell his Middle East envoy, and Mitchell appears to have his work cut out for him.  Arab states are demanding an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the conflict in which more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed and more than 5,000 were injured. 

And in a bonus story this week:

6.  A moderate Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, was declared the winner of Saturday’s presidential elections in Somalia.  Ahmed was the head of the country’s sharia court system that brought stability to southern Somalia in 2006.   But the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops earlier this year has led to even more instability in Somalia, and the political process, now to be led by Ahmed, has been dislocated from the country, now based in neighboring Djibouti.  Somalia has become a haven for piracy in recent months, and the World Food Program was forced to halt shipments to the country due to insecurity.