Anne Applebaum » The Washington Post/Slate Column

The New World in Dubai

June 21st, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

DUBAI - Foreigners visiting New York or Chicago in the 19th century often came away with conflicting feelings. Some found American cities ugly by comparison to their European counterparts: They seemed vulgar, blatantly commercial, lacking in taste. The natives had higher living standards but they were crude, and the ethnic mix — German, Irish, Italian, Jewish — was terrifying.

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What to do about Libya’s stalemate?

June 7th, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

The president of South Africa has been and gone. The United Nations is wringing its hands. NATO has said it will continue bombing, but Moammar Gaddafi has not announced his resignation. The rebels control Benghazi, but the government controls Tripoli. As of the end of April, the NATO bombardment had destroyed more than a third of Gaddafi’s military capacity but had not moved the front line at all. Hardly anything has changed since. Read on »

In Strauss-Kahn’s case, hints of Sarkozy

May 17th, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

When I first heard that Dominique Strauss-Kahn — managing director of the International Monetary Fund, leading French Socialist politician, and potential candidate for the French presidency in 2012 — was alleged to have emerged naked from a New York hotel bathroom, sexually assaulted a chambermaid, run out of the hotel, and been arrested while awaiting takeoff on the next plane to Paris, my first thought was: Sarkozy must be behind this. Read on »

In bin Laden’s death, a smart security lesson

May 2nd, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

The U.S. Air Force, with its extraordinary range and flexibility, is the best in the world. The U.S. Navy, with its vast aircraft carriers and global reach, has no real rivals. In technological sophistication and sheer firepower, the American military doesn’t even have close competitors, and no wonder: The American government spends more on its military forces than the governments of China, Russia, France, Britain, Japan and Germany — combined. Read on »

Snubbed by the royals

April 29th, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

We all know about threats, boycotts, sanctions and invasions. But not enough attention has been paid to the snub, which is also a useful and sometimes enormously effective diplomatic tool. Thanks to its royal family — yes, there are some advantages to retaining the monarchy — the British had the opportunity to deploy a well-timed snub on Thursday: They disinvited the Syrian ambassador to the royal nuptials. Read on »

What compels us to watch William and Kate

April 26th, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

A month ago, I told a British friend that I might be coming to London on April 29. “You can’t get here on the 29th,” she told me. “That’s the day of the wedding.” I told her I wasn’t invited to a wedding.

Then I remembered. Ah yes, that wedding. Read on »

What I meant about NATO, Libya and planning

April 14th, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

For the record, I’d like to clarify one point about my column of last Tuesday: When I wrote that “There was no NATO discussion of the operation, no debate, no vote, no joint planning,” of the Libya mission, I meant that there was no political planning. As Ambassador Ivo Daalder rightly pointed out in his letter to the editor today, there was a great deal of military planning. Read on »

Will the Libya intervention bring the end of NATO?

April 12th, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

On a tour of a Tripoli hospital last week, a Libyan government escort showed Western journalists evidence of the “civilian casualties” caused by NATO airstrikes. They weren’t fooled — and he knew it. “This is not even human blood!” he cried, disgusted by his own government’s pathetic propaganda. Read on »

Why has the State Department run into a firewall on Internet freedom?

April 5th, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

“We stand for a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas.”

That was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in January 2010, making what she called “an important speech on a very important subject.” And there was more:

“We are also supporting the development of new tools that enable citizens to exercise their rights of free expression by circumventing politically motivated censorship. We are providing funds to groups around the world to make sure that those tools get to the people who need them.” Read on »

France’s goals in Libya hit a little closer to home

March 28th, 2011

Published: Washington Post/Slate

The French Socialist Party triumphed in local elections last weekend. The Libyan rebels triumphed in Brega and Ras Lanouf. In France, attention turned to the presidential election of 2012. In Libya, the rebels set their sights on Tripoli. You may not think all of these things are connected. But they are. Read on »