European Institute

New Issue of European Affairs is Available Online Now

“Net neutrality” and governments’ authority to regulate the internet, including service providers who provide the “pipes” for web postings, has risen in acute fashion in the U.S. This month a federal court ruled that the FCC had overstepped the bound of its authority when it sought to order Comcast, one of two big cable/telephone/internet providers that dominate the U.S. market, to stop slowing the delivery speeds of some clients that consume a great deal of bandwidth.

The 2010 British parliamentary election matters because:

• Of its potential repercussions for Europe and for transatlantic relations, notably on Afghanistan;
  
• The next government will face great challenges, not only to rebuild the economy but also trust in the political class after the shocking scandals that affected all parties.

Privacy advocates have no friend in the Italian Judge Oscar Magi, author of a 111-page verdict upholding a criminal conviction three Google executives in connection with a video of an autistic boy being bullied by classmates.

Ugly Language Aggravates Tensions

In the corridors outside President Obama’s nuclear summit, much of the talk was not about nuclear matters but instead about how the Greek economic crisis has metastasized into a quarrel between Germany and France and now jeopardizes the prospects for more effective European unity. So a crisis that began in Greece has mutated to be about Germany and its commitment to Europe, as described in this New York Times article that has attracted attention and discussion in Washington.