Current affairs

In a world of unexpected crises and unanticipated consequences, the new president of the United States is as likely as his predecessors in the past to face almost immediate and overwhelming crisis or crises come January.

The recovery of the earth's climate from the little ice age started about 200 years ago, but the concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide started to increase significantly as late as in the 1950s, probably due to rapidly increased burning of fossil fuels.

The US presidential candidates are warbling about what strategies will best suit Afghanistan in a post-Bush world. Both Barack Obama and John McCain promise that the interminable conflict will be of "top priority" come 2009.

" The more actors there are who can read the signs of an approaching crisis, the less serious will be the consequences when the crisis breaks out."

Los Angeles-Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria has labeled the world ahead a "post-American world." I do get a very strong sense that conditions in the global economy are changing in very dramatic ways.

The late Glenn Gould made some powerful enemies in the music world when he decided to record Bach's Goldberg Variations at a slow tempo. He also made music history.

The Waki commission, charged with the task of investigating post-election violence in the aftermath of the Kenyan elections last December, has called for a special tribunal to try various perpetrators.

There are two schools of thought on what the election of a new US president will mean for transatlantic relations. The optimists argue that relations will improve significantly.

Nathan Gardels: Let's talk first about the nature of the crisis.

The anticipated catcalls from Beijing and Moscow - as well as the usual suspects in the British and Continental and Indian leftwing media - had hardly echoed when the truth dawned on them.

My sister died a year ago after a 13-year bout with various cancers. She had been cut to pieces by surgeons - mastectomy, hysterectomy, the lot -- but somehow she always managed to return to her productive normal role as wife and mother.

The surge in Iraq is not the reason for the decrease in violence. Instead the reason is "highly classified techniques". This is what Bob Woodward claimed in an interview with Bill Maher.

It is obvious that the fall-out of the U.S. financial crisis, not only in the U.S., but throughout the world will be enormous and unfathomable for months to come as the debris is sorted out.

There were moments in what was intended as a highly touted debate on U.S. foreign policy by the two presidential candidates where one despaired of any cogency at all.

Fareed Zakaria is author of The Post-American World and editor-in-chief of Newsweek International. He spoke with NPQ editor Nathan Gardels in June.

Above there is an interview with Fareed Zakaria by the New Perspectives Quarterly about his book "The Post-American World". Below there is a summary of the book as for a background for the interview.

Washington - The fiasco of the Olympic torch relay has focused attention on the condition of human rights in China. What is the source of human rights abuses in that country today?

Joseph Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. I spoke with him on Tuesday (Editor's note September 16, 2008) about the Wall Street meltdown.