040108f - FOREIGN PRESS REVIEW (FPR) - ‘Relevant news, views, comments and analyses for informed debate’ Compiled by Şanlı Bahadır Koç U.S. / Britain / Turkey / Magazines / Think-tanks / Blogs / Misc /Books / Quickread / Numbers / Reports - Subscribe to FPR FPR Table - H4 NYT WP GU H7 ME Isr H10 CSM IHT Eur FSU Asia H13 Times WSJ FT LAT H16 USP DT Ind H19 Mil Int Ter Wonk H21 Misc

H1 Basra’s second battle decoded, Reidar Visser

MESH America in the Middle East From Bernard Lewis

Geopolitical Diary: Al-Sadr Silences His Guns | Stratfor

New York Times Editorial Once and Future NATO The greatest military alliance in history has begun the 21st century fractured and without a consensus about the threats it faces and how to meet them

Iraq Seems Calmer After Cleric Halts Fighting

Kevin Drum How to Withdraw

More Basra

McClatchy Iranian who brokered Iraqi peace is on U.S. terrorist watch list Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani helped Iraqi leaders negotiate a cease-fire with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr. That an Iranian official on the U.S. watch list was key to ending the fighting underscores Iran's political influence in Iraq

Slate Foreign Policy

What it will take to heal U.S. diplomacy. Fred Kaplan

The Military How to fix the U.S. military. Phillip Carter and Fred Kaplan

Spiked, a review of The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East by Olivier Roy

Should We Fight for South Ossetia?
by Patrick Buchanan

Guardian Disunity in Damascus Ian Black As good old Muammar Gadafy pointed out, the Arab summit in Damascus laid bare crippling divisions over Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq

Five years on, the US military is now owned by Iraq By Lawrence Kaplan

Al Awsat Iraq from an Iranian View : Tariq Alhomayed

The introduction to The Roman Predicament: How the Rules of International Order Create the Politics of Empire by Harold James (and a review).

Jerusalem Post 'Winograd report all but forgotten'

William Arkin On Iraq, Forging 'Stability' Is Everyone's Game

Washington Post Relative Calm Returns After Clashes in Basra

Bush Visits a Ukraine Deeply Split Over Bid to Join Western Alliance

Not the Torch of Liberty By Rebiya Kadeer, China must engage in a meaningful dialogue that addresses the sources of discontent in Tibet and East Turkestan

Financial Times Olympic torch threatens to scorch China China is not just an emerging great power. It is also an authoritarian and nationalistic one-party state. Those concerns might have been brushed under the red carpet, if the Beijing games had not become the focus for protests against the government. But the violence in Tibet ended any hope of an apolitical games, writes Gideon Rachman

Good leadership is deciding how to decide Understanding context is key, writes Joseph Nye

Looming dangers for the dollar

The sine qua non of a reserve currency is stability. If the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate cuts unleash sustained inflation, the pre-eminence of the dollar will be tested

The limit of liberalisation Economists’ Forum: Has the dream of global free-market capitalism died? Martin Wolf debates the issue with Ricardo Hausmann, Robert Wade, Guillermo Calvo and Adam Posen

Germany blocks ex-Soviets’ Nato entry Leaders were seeking a face-saving compromise after Germany insisted it was ’not the right time’ to allow Ukraine and Georgia to take a significant step towards Nato membership

IHT The view from Athens

By DORA BAKOYANNIS

As long as the name problem persists, Greece cannot and will not endorse The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia joining NATO or the European Union.

A risky end-game By EDWARD P. JOSEPH The dispute between Greece and Macedonia over the latter's name jeopardizes this week's NATO summit in Bucharest - and Balkan stability.

The Balkans, again By MISHA GLENNY I wish all success to those diplomats who are working to find a compromise between Greece and Macedonia. But I'm not holding my breath.

Wall Street Journal All in a Name
By Dora Bakoyannis
Deciding what constitutes 'Macedonia' is key to stability in the Balkans.

Los Angeles Times Iraq showdown made Sadr stronger, backers say Militia members melt back into the background after the cleric's order to lay down their weapons

Editorial Shades of gray in Basra As factions battle in Basra, the U.S. must remember that not everyone who opposes Maliki is a 'terrorist.'

This week's NATO summit will shape Bush legacy Issues the alliance is grappling with -- the conflict in Afghanistan and the effort to spread democracy -- go to the heart of his agenda

H 2 Middle East Digest: March 31, 2008 “… what we would expect and hope from this process is that those involved would proceed in a way that was apolitical and that reflected the commitment to representative democracy that's been expressed by the Turkish voters in recent elections.”

Newsweek - Call It a Coup Grenville Byford In private and in public, the West must explain to Turkey's Kemalist establishment and the generals who stand with it an essential fact of democracy: those who lose elections must accept the result.

WSJ Editorial Turkey's Judges Vote
Turkey's highest court yesterday agreed to hear a case to ban the President.

The Economist A threat of turmoil in Turkey TURKEY edged towards prolonged political and economic turmoil

Washington Post What a Headscarf Can Mean By Anne Applebaum, In certain Turkish communities, a head covering symbolizes not just faith but also adherence to a particular version of Islam.

FT Turkish court to hear case against ruling party

Turkey faces months of political stalemate

New York TimesTurkey Court Takes Politically Explosive Case

Guardian Turkey's government under threat

Slate A Wrinkle in the Fabric of Society In Turkey, head scarves are potent political symbols. Anne Applebaum