Europe

Join the New America Foundation for a speech by Major General Gordon Messenger, the lead spokesman on British operations in Afghanistan and Commander of the UK Task Force Helmand from September 2008 until March 2009. Maj. Gen. Messenger will discuss the U.K.'s counterinsurgency strategy and operations in Afghanistan.

Over a year ago, the world economy suffered a massive economic quake – and certain countries have been experiencing aftershocks ever since. Two such aftershocks have grabbed headlines, one recently in Greece and another last summer in California. A comparison of these two events reveals something about the respective features of the west's two leading capitalist economies, the US and Europe.

The financial crisis in Greece and other southern European nations is testing the stability of the "eurozone." Was Europe's social capitalism not quite as stable as supporters have claimed? Or is this another case of Wall Street overreach wreaking havoc in the global economy?

The last quarter of the 19th century witnessed a period of sustained global deflation. In the 1896 US presidential election, William Jennings Bryan famously attacked the gold standard as the cause of deflation, declaring “You shall not press upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Today, euroland is being crucified upon its own cross of gold that is the institutional arrangements behind the euro. Those arrangements have distorted the monetary - fiscal balance, creating deflationary central bank dominance.

Please join the New America Foundation for a conversation with Steven Hill about his new book, Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age. And find out why California would be better off seceding from the U.S. and joining the European Union!

Troy K. Schneider talks with Steven Hill, author of Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age, about the cultural and political differences across the Atlantic, and possible takeaways for U.S. policymakers.

On February 15, 2010, the New America Foundation invited Jean-Pierre Filiu to lecture on the current strength of Al-Qaeda. He began his talk by explaining that for 21 years, Al-Qaeda has survived because it has continually readapted and regenerated itself. Its continual rejuvenation has led Filiu to dub its existence as “the nine lives of Al-Qaeda.” Jean-Pierre Filiu believes, however, that this cycle of regeneration is about to come to an end.

In recent months, Europe has learned some hard lessons about its transatlantic partner. President Barack Obama triggered great hope when he replaced George W. Bush at the American helm. But a year later, especially following Obama’s failure to produce anything of substance at Copenhagen, Europeans are realizing that Obama is going to have a difficult time delivering on a new American agenda.

Why is Obama so unable to match his lofty speeches with concrete deeds? There are two major reasons.

In the aftermath of the economic crisis, the United States needs a new economic model — one that will decentralize power and put it in the hands of the workers. As Steven Hill suggests in this excerpt from his book, "Europe's Promise," the United States might have a lesson to learn from post-World War II Germany.In the terrible aftermath of World War II, a group of prominent German economists proposed what they called the “social market economy.” They believed that a free market should also serve broader social goals.