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The battle in Italy over the revaluation of pensions has made the country’s tricky financial situation worse. Could the resulting climate drive Ital...

Italy’s government is celebrating the country’s recent economic growth, but not all indicators point to success. What happens in the future will d...

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is bringing stability to Italy with his grand coalition and electoral reforms. But how long will it last? ...

Lamentations about the state of the Italian economy have become so commonplace, Italians barely react to them. But Italy’s public debt problem has p...

Roman taxi drivers are competing for business against Uber. Is the online service the future of the market or should it be regulated? The struggle is ...

Matteo Renzi is a quick learner. The Italian Prime Minister has been quietly forging alliances across Europe – and has emerged as an influential voi...

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi seems to be on the right track. But more reforms are needed besides changing the infamous Articolo 18....

Berlusconi may still be able to tiptoe around his current legal problems, but this time his political career is finished. What comes next has the chan...

Merkel will probably succeed to stay on course but Italians prefer to focus on a sunken ship. This tells a lot about the boring German election campai...

A congressional rejection of the military intervention in Syria will give Obama the right excuse to avoid military action and to accomplish his missio...

Exports are considered to be the driving force in booming economies. Yet, by focusing too much on growth from outside, economies neglect their most im...

The current crisis is driving a wedge between Germans and Italians. Newspapers are filled with reciprocal accusations and criticism, and the gap betwe...

Italy needs reforms and restructuring to overcome the current crisis. But attempts to emulate Germany’s success won’t help to solve the country’...

US hegemony in the Middle East will not be safeguarded by military interventions. The Syrian crisis proves that today’s global game of power can onl...

Without the euro, Southern Europe is headed for trouble. It's in Germany's interest to keep the Eurozone together to prevent turmoil at its doorstep. ...

The United States hoped to build Turkey into a model democracy in the Middle East, and to wait out the turmoil of the Arab Spring. Both policies have ...

Exactly 24 years after the massacre in Tiananmen Square, Turkey's prime minister has to decide how to respond to demands for real secular democracy. W...

Italian soccer clubs have a racism problem. It's indicative of the sorry state of Italian civil society that almost nobody dares to speak openly about...

Syria's conflict is likely to continue for years – unless we change more than the rules of the political game. A two-state solution is most likely t...

Germany's new energy policy brings out the best in the country's politics – and the worst. Too often, politicians have embraced prestige projects bu...

The struggle over the euro currency is re-introducing fragmentation to the European continent. New divisions won't emerge from religious or ethnic fau...

The focus of Germany's export economy has shifted from Europe to China – and Germany has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of austerity. ...

The problem of Southern Europe is a lack domestic demand, not a lack of competitiveness....

Giorgio Napolitano has rescued Italian politics from perpetual quagmire. With the nomination of Enrico Letta, he might even succeed in reforming the I...

Germany's economy depends on the euro. And Eurobonds could turn out to be the tool that secures those benefits in the long run. ...

North Korea's saber-rattling is laughable. We should be much more concerned if another regime followed Pyongyang's advice. ...

US energy independence presents an opportunity for American leadership in the Middle East. ...

Germany continues to push for austerity abroad – and has helped to spark a populist reaction in Italy. Maybe Europeans can learn a lesson from the U...

Given the choice between austerity measures and Berlusconi's leadership, most sane Italians will choose the latter. ...

Italy's problem isn't Silvio Berlusconi – it's the lack of young, competent politicians. The decline of the Italian middle class has silenced two ge...

As long as the powerhouses of Europe prefer austerity over economic solidarity, we must remain pessimistic about the future of the continental union. ...

Neither Great Britain nor Germany can take full credit for their economic recovery. ...

Criticizing Berlusconi's "Bunga Bunga" attitude won't stop his resurgence - it will only convince more Italians that the world is out to get them. ...

Two years after the beginning of the Arab Spring, the promise of revolutions remains unclear. What we have learned: social media is a very inadequate ...

In the Middle East, the hope for democratic change has been replaced by the fear of Islamist autocracy. The role models for Mohammed Morsi are Egypt's...

Of course Palestinians have a moral right to statehood, but their wish will not be fulfilled until we engage Israel's strategic security concerns. The...

A monetary war has been fought in the Eurozone and Greece has lost. It's in the best interest of the Greek people and of the rest of Europe to cancel ...

Israel's biggest foe resides beyond the Gaza Strip: Iran has almost encircled the government in Jerusalem. Israel - the West's only reliable ally in t...

America has lost its hegemonic status. If Barack Obama wants to navigate through four more years of foreign policy, he must correct America's view of ...

Despite all the hopes of sun and wind enthusiasts, the real revolution in the energy world has been driven by old-style fossil fuels. Shale gas now do...

Turkey is struggling to find its role in the Middle East. The past two years have thrown a wrench into Erdogan's plans for regional dominance. ...

Silvio Berlusconi is no friend of Germany. But his clownish appearances turn truly destructive when Euroskeptics succumb to his lure. ...

One of the main dangerous consequences of unrest in the Middle East would be the retreat of the US into isolationism. The region is volatile - and we ...

Global energy supplies are changing rapidly. But one thing must remain: Western commitment to the oil-exporting countries of the Middle East. ...

Is Germany secretly a BRICS country, as recently claimed? Compared to China or India, its problems are hardly similar....

Chinese officials have not realized that Ai Weiwei is much more harmful to them if he remains in China and imprisoned. Exiled to the West, his influen...

Energy independence for Israel is a double-edged sword. While the country wants to rely less on suppliers from the Middle East, autarchy might come at...

The Eurozone is drifting farther apart. But are we willing to accept that some countries might be forced to return to their national currencies? ...

Facebook's failed IPO illustrates the hubris and greed of the bankers that advised the company. Instead of pursuing a sensible investment strategy, th...

China's continuing rise has put virtually every Western power on alert. But it would be a big mistake to see Chinese State Capitalism as inevitable. B...

The Euro crisis resembles a Shakespearean tragedy: Despite the obvious deficiencies of the monetary union, all alternatives are decidedly worse for Ge...

China is revamping its energy supply: Away from global trade routes, and towards regional cooperation with Russia. ...

Global oil prices are staggeringly high, but poised to decline in the future. For a global economy that remains heavily dependent on oil, this is good...

In China, a new power is slowly emerging: Rich oligarchs who test the state's limits to control the economy from Beijing. And Western expats are only ...

Germany's economic model works admirably - for Germany. He plight of other Eurozone countries cannot be solved through a simple copy-and-paste strateg...

Nicholas Sarkozy's political inspiration comes from Italy: First, it was Berlusconi's flashy PR. Now it's the virulent nationalism of Umberto Bossi. ...

Syria is increasingly resembling a Gordian knot: If Western powers do not intervene, Assad will continue to slaughter his people. And if they decide o...

Greece is caught in a particular bind: If the country acknowledges its default, it could set off a catastrophic chain reaction of economic instability...

The crisis in Iran is remaking the global energy landscape. Instead of relying on oil from the Middle East, China has embraced Russia as its new suppl...

Germany is tempted by its new Eastern ally: China could become the country's biggest trading partner by the end of 2012 and signals a key shift in eco...

Amidst all the uncertainty in the Middle East, two truths emerge: Big power politics has returned to the forefront of international diplomacy. And the...

A year after the Arab Spring, the Middle East is quickly moving from revolution to war – and international powers begin to realize that their commi...

Today's Italy increasing resembled Russia during the Yeltsin years: A country marked by an exodus of capital, shortage of credit, and inflexible econo...