European Institute

The Frugal Superpower: America's Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era.

By Michael Mandelbaum

PublicAffairs, 2010, 282 Pages.

We are now deep enough into the 21st century that its chroniclers have already recalibrated its turning-point date. No longer is it September 11, 2001, but September 15, 2008 – the day of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the official advent of the Great Global Recession.

By all reports, the review conference of the International Criminal Court (ICC), in Kampala earlier this year, is turning out to be a good-news story, both for the US, which ironically does not submit to the jurisdiction of the Court, and the world ,which has an interest in a strong international voice against war crimes and atrocities and aggression. The conference was previewed by European Affairs in the July 2010 issue.

A number of recent articles in the European and American press have highlighted the grave concern in Europe about reports of imports and sales, without licensing or labeling, of meat and milk derived from clones. Whereas approval and labeling is necessary for the sale of the meat of clones, the European Commission has taken a very lax view on milk and meat from the offspring of clones. Several European countries are already importing clone semen and embryos. Switzerland has acknowledged that clone-derived products are sold there (that can be exported to the EU) and the British have discovered in their newspapers that they may be unknowingly eating clone-derived meat and milk. There is currently no system for tracing the origin of these products, informing consumers of the nature of what they are buying or indeed tracking clone offspring as they mix into the gene pool.

During a recent trip to Albania, it was striking to notice the number or of Kosovars spending their summer holidays on the Ionian Sea stretch of the Adriatic coast. Many of these tourists were predictably drawn by the beautiful beaches, scenery and pleasant weather but, perhaps unconsciously, they were also celebrating the emergence of their landlocked homeland, Kosovo, as an independent nation enjoying growing world acceptance. It got a boost from the July ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Kosovo’s declaration of independence did not violate international law. See recent European Affairs blogpost. This unambiguous statement at the core of the court’s finding went further, in Kosovo’s direction, than many observers had anticipated. Even so, in its quest for legitimacy and viability, Kosovo still faces formidable obstacles ranging from the need for recognition by more states to the challenge of making a peace with Serbia -- and domestically, the requirement of tackling widespread corruption.