Happy Thanksgiving!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you from the Global Spectator!

We will return Monday, December 1st with all the weekend's left-overs as well as the latest perspectives on U.S. politics from outside our borders.

OP-ED: Obama Likely to Opt for Strategic Retraction (China Daily, CHINA)

When Barack Obama is officially sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, the world he faces will be very different from the one his predecessor George W. Bush did eight years ago. The days when the US sat comfortably relishing the spoils of the Cold War are long gone, as the war in Iraq and the spreading financial crisis have dragged the country into a difficult situation it has not seen for decades.

What does all this mean to the Obama administration when it takes office or to the US for that matter? Taking a cue from a slew of signs, I believe that Obama's government will very likely pursue a strategic retraction, meaning the US will very likely enter a period of strategic adjustment.

The last time the US underwent a strategic retraction was in the early 1970s. The starting signals came in then President Richard Nixon's address to the nation on the war in Vietnam on Nov 3, 1969 and the annual foreign affairs report his administration submitted to Congress in Feb 1970.

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OP-ED: Why Experience Will Trump Change (Sydney Morning Herald, AUSTRALIA)

Has Barack Obama already broken his first promise to voters in his choice of cabinet and White House staff? As a candidate, Obama spent 17 months promising a new vision of politics; a politics not divided along partisan lines, that would break with the old Washington ways where access to decision-makers was corrupted by donations, lobbyists and a culture of insiders.

He promised change, galvanising many younger voters, who believed America could become a fairer country, and end its involvement in Iraq. But so far he has turned mainly to people with reputations as practitioners of tough, pragmatic politics, and long Washington histories.

Obama's trouble is that it is the landscape into which he will step on January 20 which has changed. Over the past six months, America has gone from prosperous-if-troubled to an economy on the brink, and a nimble, smoothly functioning administration must take priority over experiments in open governance.

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Not Letting Promises Get in the Way of Policy (Globe and Mail, CANADA)

Barack Obama made two core promises during his primary and election campaigns. If victorious, he vowed to (a) break up Washington's old boys' club and (b) raise taxes on the rich to pay for tax cuts to the middle class.

Immediately after his victory, Mr. Obama set about breaking his first pledge. Yesterday he confirmed speculation that he may break the second.

And yet no one seems to mind.

The economic team that Mr. Obama unveiled yesterday consists of hands so inside Washington's ways that they could get jobs as tour guides.

Timothy Geithner, nominated for treasury secretary, first joined that department in 1988. He served as undersecretary under former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, who returns as director of Mr. Obama's National Economic Council.

The likely attorney-general, Eric Holder, served as deputy attorney-general in the Clinton administration. And the ultimate Clintonite, Hillary Clinton herself, is expected to be named secretary of state.

Mr. Obama appears to want to party like it's 1999.

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Egypt's Presidency (and what the US can do about it) (Daily Star, EGYPT)

The countdown to the most important event for the future of the Middle East has begun. In 2011, the term of President Hosni Mubarak (in power since 1981) will end and Egyptians will vote for a new president of the republic. Mubarak, who would be 83 then, is unlikely to seek another term. Despite the various undemocratic succession scenarios under debate - the ascent to power of Mubarak's son Gamal, that of an unknown military official, or that of another official close to Mubarak - the presidential election will constitute a watershed one way or the other for the future of democracy in the Middle East . . .

The Obama administration must be aware of the critical phase through which Cairo is passing. It must also know that if the United States claims that it is committed to supporting democratic change in the Arab world, then this is a historic opportunity - which will not recur - to restore its credibility in the eyes of the Arab citizenry. In dealing with Egyptian succession, the US has an opportunity to contribute constructively to the creation of a model of democratic governance in the Arab world's most populous nation, a nation that is accustomed to being the starting point of shifts that have changed the region, most notably the decision of late President Anwar Sadat to sign a peace agreement with Israel.

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Burst of U.S. Bubble Arouses Old Specters (Japan Times, JAPAN)

So the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has spoken: The "usual tools of economic policy — above all, the Federal Reserve's ability to pump up the economy by cutting interest rates — have lost all traction" ("Depression Economics Return," Nov. 14, The New York Times).

The article brought to mind my friend Takafusa Shioya's conclusion in his book about the Japanese economic bubble that burst in 1989. Measures that had worked earlier did not work in dealing with the aftermath of the bubble. A top economic officer while in government, Shioya observed the policy struggle firsthand, often as part of it.

So, the worry now is that the United States might repeat the Great Depression. As this has come to the fore, the concern has receded that it might have to go through what Japan did after its bubble.

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OP-ED: Hillary Clinton: How much Foreign Policy Experience? (Haaretz, ISRAEL)

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is poised to take on the task of U.S. Secretary of State in President-elect Barack Obama's administration, leading critics and voters alike to wonder how much foreign policy experience she actually has.


The New York Times reported last week Clinton has decided to relinquish her U.S. Senate seat and accept the job of secretary of state.

"She's ready," a source told the newspaper, which said Clinton came to her decision after additional discussions with Obama about the nature of her role as the top U.S. diplomat and his plans for foreign policy.

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America in 2025: From Dominance to Global Partnership (Radio Netherlands)

The might of the world's greatest superpower - the USA - is set to decline over the next twenty years. America's political, economic and military dominance will give way to new powers such as China, India and Brazil, says the influential American National Intelligence Council (NIC).

The NIC paints a rather gloomy picture of America's position in the world by the year 2025. But the decline of the US has in fact already begun, says George Joffé, who is a lecturer at the Cambridge International Studies Centre in Britain. America's actions in Iraq and other parts of the world have contributed to that decline, he says, but there are more reasons:

"Simply because of the growth of the Chinese economy and the growth of the so-called ‘BRICs' - that's Brazil, Russia, India and China. And it's been clear for some time that a multi-polar world was emerging".

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Bullying Barack Stakes Rising on Pres-elect’s First Test (China Post, TAIWAN)

Barack Obama campaigned on the promise of “change,” but one change the president-elect may be planning on — not deploying a U.S. missile defense in Eastern Europe — would be a big mistake.

Indeed, it’s exactly the type of about-face that nations like Russia, Iran and North Korea hope for from the incoming administration.

Worse, it will likely be seen abroad as knuckling to Russian bullying.

Two weeks ago, just a day after the U.S. elections, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a virulently anti-American speech — his first major address since taking office this spring and arguably the first foreign “test” of the president-elect.

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The Arab World Looks to a New America (Der Spiegel, GERMANY)

The US has long been a model for many parts of the Arab world, but the Bush administration's foreign policy led to rifts. Now, the region has high hopes from America, but they aren't sure what to expect from President-elect Barack Obama.

It's about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, which is roughly the distance from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara. One hundred years ago, California was the El Dorado for the Americans, a land on the horizon, far off near the edge of their map and yet at the center of their fantasies. Today, the Gulf Emirates occupy a similar place in the imaginations of the Arabs. Rich. Modern. Bold. The Emirates are enlightened where much of the Arab world is repressed and held back by its self-imposed restrictions. Many a young man in the slums of Cairo, in the prisons of Baghdad or behind the walls of Palestine has dreamt of speeding, wild and free, along the road from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in an SUV or in a convertible earned through his own hard work.

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Intelligence Report Says World Domination Over (RFI, FRANCE)

The US's National Intelligence Council (NIC) declares "We can no longer call the shots alone," in a global trends report which sees China, India and Russia as rising power and predicts that the European Union will be a "hobbled giant" by 2025. The four-yearly report pools the analysis of all US intelligence agencies. It predicts uncertain times, as Barack Obama prepares to become US President.

The 121-page report, called Global Trends 2025 - a world transformed, warns that US interests will face challenges if China becomes a peer competitor with a strong military and an energy-hungry economy.

"Few countries are poised to have more impact on the world over the next 15-20 years than China," the report said. "If current trends persist, by 2025 China will have the world's second largest economy and will be a leading military power."

The European Union is likely to be "losing clout" by 2025 because of "a democracy gap" between Brussels and European people, which will prevent it translating its economic power into global influence.

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Is Obama's Mideast Peace Platform Coming into Focus? (Haaretz, ISRAEL)

Eight weeks before Barack Obama is sworn into office, signs have emerged over the weekend that point to what is turning out to be the new administration's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is the conclusion that one reaches when considering the upcoming appointment of Hillary Clinton to the position of secretary of state; the reports that Obama could name retired general James Jones to the position of national security adviser; and the president-elect's reliance on the advice of Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser in the administrations of Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. Obama and Scowcroft are said to have spoken at least twice since the election.

Despite the attention being paid to Clinton, no less important is the move made two days ago by Scowcroft and the man who succeeded him in office as national security adviser to Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski. In an op-ed piece penned for the Washington Post, Scowcroft (whom John McCain considered naming as a special envoy to the Middle East) and Brzezinski (who was close to Obama during the initial stages of his candidacy for president) offered a kind of first draft of "The Obama Plan."

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OP-ED: "Never Waste a Crisis" (Portugal News)

Can Obama Change the Game?

US president-elect Barack Obama inherits the in-box from hell, but an all-points crisis like the present one also creates opportunities for radical change that do not exist in more normal times. As Rahm Emanuel, his newly appointed chief of staff, put it: “Never waste a crisis.” Is Obama clever enough and radical enough to seize those opportunities?

For example, he has promised to shut down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. While he’s at it, why not hand the whole US military base at Guantanamo back to the Cubans?

Guantanamo has absolutely no military purpose; Washington has only hung on to it for all these decades to annoy the Cuban regime. If the US wanted to bomb Cuba, it would do it from Florida. If it wanted to invade, it would land Marines on beaches elsewhere, not march them into the teeth of the Cuban defences around Guantanamo.

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OP-ED: Sign of Desperation (Globe and Mail, CANADA)

Make no mistake: Al-Qaeda's leadership is scared of Barack Obama.

A year ago, the Anglo-American pundit Andrew Sullivan suggested in The Atlantic Monthly that his readers “consider this hypothetical. It's November, 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man – Barack Hussein Obama – is the new face of America. In one simple image, America's soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm.” Judging by this week's video message from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda terror group's second-in-command, the extremists of the world have caught on to this possibility.

Mr. al-Zawahiri's ludicrous characterization of Mr. Obama as a “house negro” (interspersed helpfully with clips of the African-American activist Malcolm X) demonstrates just how out of touch his organization is with American reality, and the desperation of a terrorist outfit that has lately produced plenty of bark, but very little bite. Make no mistake: Al-Qaeda's leadership is scared of Barack Hussein Obama.

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Obama Cabinet Vetting Process Most Rigid on Record (Toronto Star, CANADA)

Nominees quizzed on finances, foreign travel, mental health history and brushes with law.

Ever taken a puff of marijuana? Overlooked a work permit for your household help? Grazed with a lobbyist at Washington's top tables? Slung a "friendly" arm around an intern? Or been a titch too relaxed with your taxes?

If the answer is no, you can pass go and hand in your application for a job with Barack Obama's new administration.

But don't be too confident. Obama's vetting process, the most stringent on record, is very, very detailed. By the end of a 63-item questionnaire, and an interview worthy of a Catholic confessional, you might be out of the running.

"Obama is vetting his team in a way that I haven't seen in a U.S. president in a long time," says David Gruder, a California psychologist and author of The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World. "He is demonstrating a real willingness to learn from mistakes of the past."

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Obama Brings US in from the Cold (Independent, UK)

In a landmark speech, the next president pledges to revive Kyoto Protocol and end American isolationism over climate change.

Prospects for success in the world's struggle to combat global warming have been transformed at a stroke after US President-elect Barack Obama made it clear that America would play its full part in renewing the Kyoto Protocol climate-change treaty.

His words, in effect, brought an end to eight years of willful climate obstructionism by the administration of George Bush, who withdrew the US from Kyoto in March 2001, thus doing incalculable damage to the efforts of the international community to construct a unified response to the threat.

The Bush withdrawal set back the international effort by nearly a decade – years in which it became increasingly clear that the warming of the atmosphere being caused by greenhouse gas emissions was proceeding much faster than UN scientists thought it would.

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OP-ED: Back-Scratching in America (Moscow Times, RUSSIA)

By Alexei Pankin

A few weeks ago, a British friend of mine said: "I have a personal banker in Switzerland whom I had consulted about possible foreign investments, but as soon as I realized that he was basing his advice on information taken from the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, I immediately closed my account in that bank. As a result, I saved myself from serious losses during the crisis."

In recent days, a number of respected Western media outlets, including the BBC and The New York Times, have concluded that their initial reports about the outbreak of the Russia-Georgia war in August were erroneous. In the first weeks of the conflict, readers and viewers were given the same message: "Authoritarian Russia unleashed an unprovoked war against the young Georgian democracy." It took three months for the media to realize that Georgia launched the first attack against both the peaceful citizens of Tskhinvali and Russian peacekeepers, thereby compelling Russia to send its forces into Georgian territory.

If most of the Western media misled the public for so long over the simple question of who attacked whom in the Georgian conflict, then what guarantee do we have that the rest of the information they are reporting is reliable?

And as people search for the cause of the financial crisis, experts increasingly point to the lack of objective analysis in the United States. On a government level, for example, U.S. bureaucrats are becoming increasingly less professional and more politicized as they cater to the demands of their elected leaders.

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OP-ED: The Real Issue Isn't a Shield in Central Europe (Moscow Times, RUSSIA)

By Fyodor Lukyanov

In the two weeks since he was elected president, Barack Obama has received conflicting signals from Moscow. Aside from a threat to deploy Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, the Kremlin has made some conciliatory statements. Whether we see a new chapter in U.S.-Russian relations will become clear only after Obama and his foreign policy team are firmly in place after January. Nonetheless, we can still identify the key points that will determine the nature of the relationship.

The two main irritants in relations are NATO expansion and plans to install elements of a U.S. missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Following the war in the Caucasus, NATO may have less enthusiasm for offering Membership Action Plans for Ukraine and Georgia, but the missile-defense issue will become either the main obstacle to bilateral relations or the key opportunity for improving them.

Since the missile-defense program was first proposed, it has caused a great deal of frustration for both sides. At a U.S.-Russia summit in Sochi in April, then-President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush signed a declaration on a strategic framework for relations between the two countries. After the summit, the Kremlin concluded that the next U.S. president would make the final decision about whether the United States would go forward with its missile-defense system in Central Europe. In other words, Moscow thought Bush would not force the issue before he left office.

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Fears for Irish Jobs as Citigroup Prepares to Cut 52,000 Worldwide (Independent, IRELAND)

CITIGROUP, the ailing US financial giant, which employs over 2,000 staff here, shocked the market yesterday by announcing that it would cut up to 52,000 jobs by the second half of next year.

The planned 15pc cut in staff comes on top of 23,000 job cuts already made since the bank's employee numbers peaked at the end of last year and are designed to cut costs by 20pc to about $50bn. The bank warned that London and New York would inevitably bear the brunt of job cuts.

The group would not comment on Irish jobs. It has an Irish workforce of over 2,200 based in Dublin's IFSC and Waterford and just months ago announced a €35m investment for a research, development and innovation facility for the next generation of financial software to be based in Dublin.

Win Bischoff, the bank's chairman, admitted that, along with other banks, Citi had hired too many people during the long credit-driven boom and predicted a wave of cuts by financial services companies.

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The Speech We Should Have Heard at the G-20 (Der Spiegel, GERMANY)

At the financial summit in Washington, the international community was unduly respectful of the United States, neglecting to probe more deeply into the reasons for the crisis. Only one attendee was unruly -- German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück. Here's the message he didn't deliver to Bush.

First, the true part of the story: US President George W. Bush had invited the leaders of the world's 20 most important countries to a dinner at the White House last Friday evening. Because the financial crisis was the topic of discussion, each leader had the option of bringing along his or her finance minister. The first course, smoked quail, was to be served at 7:20 p.m.

Everyone was on time, except one man.

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What Obama means to the Baltics (Baltic Times, LATVIA)

Nov 12, 2008
by Monika Hanley

RIGA - The world was forever changed Nov. 4, as news of the election of the U.S.’s first African-American president resounded across the globe.

Kenya, the home country of Obama’s father, was rejoicing and singing as the news reached them. In the U.S., an unprecedented reaction to the election results was witnessed from Seattle to Washington D.C. – roads were closed down and blocked off as people took to the streets, dancing and singing, and wrapped in American flags, most celebrating until the early hours of the morning.

Though the Republican U.S. ambassador to Latvia, Charles Larson, looked visibly disappointed, he agreed with members of the government and locals on one thing. Obama means change.

“This is a historic and exciting day,” he said.

There are worries that he won’t be able to live up to the wild expectations that some people have, but none doubt that changes are coming.

BALTIC REACTION

“We’ll see what happens,” said local Latvian teacher Juris Klavins, who is hesitant to jump on the bandwagon of excited Obama fanatics. This seems to be the norm across the Baltics, a region that historically never hurries to accept new leadership too soon.

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Outsourcing biggest concern for India post-Bush (Hindustan Times, INDIA)

New Delhi, November 16, 2008

Outsourcing by US companies will be the biggest concern for India due to the change in US administration next year, says a global research firm.

"For India, the biggest concerns perhaps in over its important outsourcing industry, as the practice of shifting jobs overseas had come under fire during the US presidential campaign," Moody's economy.Com, a subsidiary of global research firm Moody's Corporation, has said in a report.

In February this year, continuing to play the anti-outsourcing card, Obama, the then Democrat presidential front-runner, had said, while America cannot "shy away" from globalisation, it would have to take measures to ensure that jobs are not shipped overseas.

"We have to stop providing tax breaks for companies that are shipping jobs overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that are investing here in the United States of America," Obama had said during a debate with rival Senator Hillary Clinton in Cleveland, Ohio.

However, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Saturday that the US has given an assurance to India that the policies to strengthen bilateral ties will continue and felt that outsourcing, a hot topic during the US presidential polls, will not be an issue.

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No worries over Obama administration (Hindustan Times, INDIA)

On Board Air India One, November 16, 2008

India has no reason to feel uneasy over the change in the US administration following the takeover of president-elect Barak Obama on Jan 20 next year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said.

"From whatever feedback I have, I think we have no reason to be apprehensive about the change of regime in the United States," the prime minister said on his way back from a financial summit hosted by US President George W. Bush in Washington.

"I think there is general recognition in the US regarding the role that India can play, India should play. There is considerable appreciation of the way Indian economy is managed," he said.

The prime minister said it was with this intention that Obama had recently sent former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and Congressman Tom Leach, who chairs a House committee on Asia, to interact with Indian government representatives.

"They have given us all the positive indication, so there is no reason to have any doubts about the intentions of the Obama administration towards India."

The two had met with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen before the prime minister had arrived in Washington.

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Barack Obama should lead Middle East peace efforts, says Tony Blair (Telegraph, UK)

Tony Blair has called on Barack Obama to lead the world in finding a solution to conflict in the Middle East.

The former Prime Minister said the new President would have the chance to heal divisions in an 'era of real possibility'.

Speaking during a visit to Rwanda, Mr Blair said world leaders had been too tied up with their own domestic agendas to focus properly on the decades-old Middle East conflict.

He admitted that though he tried to influence the Middle East peace process while serving as Prime Minister, his efforts were doomed because he could not acquire the necessary detailed understanding of the issues.

And he said Mr Obama could heal rifts between America and Europe by being prepared to champion causes regarded as priorities in Europe such as the Middle East, poverty and the environment.

"I think he can say to Europe, look I'm going to champion a global deal on climate change, I'm going to take the Middle East peace process seriously, I'm going to make sure that poverty in Africa is right at the top of the agenda, I'm going to listen to your concerns and get a shared agenda with you."

He said progress would come if America, Europe and the international community delegated genuine authority to envoys tasked with focusing fully on issues such as peace in the Middle East.

Since standing down as prime minister, Mr Blair accepted a number of jobs including the position of Palestinian development envoy for the Quartet – the grouping of America, Russia, the United Nations and European Union.

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Michelle Obama should 'take a back seat', says Cherie Blair (Telegraph, UK)

Cherie Blair has advised Michelle Obama that she should "learn to take a back seat" during her husband's presidency.

Mrs Blair, who was criticised for several controversies during her husband Tony's premiership, warned Mrs Obama that she faced "hard adjustments" as her family prepared to enter the White House.

She warned that the soon-to-be First Lady should "remember that it is not you who was elected" and be wary of political opponents suggesting that she held the "power behind the throne".

In a newspaper article, Mrs Blair wrote: "You have to learn to take a back seat, not just in public but in private. When your spouse is late to put the kids to bed, or for dinner, or your plans for the weekend are turned upside-down again, you simply have to accept that he had something more important to do.

"You can't confuse being a sounding board with having influence over decisions. You always have to remember that it is not you who was elected.

"The power behind the throne is a line of attack political opponents are only too keen to deploy, as Hillary Clinton discovered."

In the article, which was published in The Times, Mrs Blair admitted that following the advice is "not always easy", adding: "I can't say I always bore this with equanimity."

She added that some sections of the US media had sought to portray Mrs Obama "as another Hillary, angrier and more divisive than her husband", in what she described as a "damaging stereotype".

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This was not King's dream (Telegraph, UK)

Debating whether Britain could elect a black PM distracts from the true purport of Obama's win.

Since Black Wednesday, when the world woke up to Barack Obama as president of the United States (so why shouldn't black be a positive adjective for once?), arguments have raged over whether Britain could ever have a black leader.

No, says Trevor Phillips, the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission: our political parties are too institutionally racist. Yes, replies Sadiq Khan, the communities minister Sadiq Khan. And stop being so negative, adds Lord Taylor, the black former Tory parliamentary candidate.

Of course, the whole discussion is ridiculous - a year ago all three commentators would have agreed that we'll never have a black US president. What Obama has done so spectacularly is prove that, however improbable an event may be, we can never write it off as impossible.

In an attempt to claim that Obama had an easier ride than a woman might have had, Linda Colley asked on these pages this week: "Would a Barbara Obama, after just one term as senator, have stood a chance of being elected to the Oval Office?" Of course it's not likely. But if you'd asked the same question of a black man a couple of years ago, the notion would have appeared equally preposterous. It depends on the man. And it depends on the woman. After all, Margaret Thatcher herself said she never expected to see a female prime minister in her lifetime - just a couple of years before becoming Conservative leader.

The one thing both Obama and Thatcher have in common is that they are exceptional politicians - reaffirming the saying that if you're black, or a woman, you have to be twice as good as your white or male colleagues to get to the top. Both, by force of their personalities, overthrew their parties' establishment candidates. We will have to wait in hope to see if Obama can leave such an enduring legacy as his British counterpart.

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Obama and the Rise of the Rest (Daily News, EGYPT)

By Zachary Karabell

American elections usually produce a brief euphoria; the public sense of renewal, of future possibilities, acts as a shot of adrenaline. This year, however, the palpable relief and celebration will be tempered by the widely shared sense that all is not well in America.

The economic data are almost uniformly bleak and will not improve soon, and, while national security issues appear less pressing because of the financial crisis, they have hardly disappeared, given the tenuous situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the unresolved problems in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Moreover, the power of America’s presidency, and of the United States, has undergone dramatic shifts in recent years, making our era unlike earlier periods when the world was in flux and a new American president faced deep challenges.

Until recently, it was possible to speak of “the rise of the rest” without forecasting a decrease in American power. Now, with the US military at its limit in Iraq and Afghanistan and the US fiscal position weakening, America is confronted with stark choices. That is an unfamiliar position for a new US president. Even in the dark years after Vietnam in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a sense that America could still make its economic choices without much reference to the wider world. That was the privilege of having the largest, most dynamic economy — and one that acted as a world creditor. No more.

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Cool Moscow Will Wait For Obama (St. Petersburg Times, RUSSIA)

Moscow signaled over the weekend that relations with Washington will come to a virtual standstill until President-elect Barack Obama assumes office in January, rejecting new U.S. proposals on missile defense and nuclear arms reduction.

President Dmitry Medvedev also spoke by telephone with Obama, and the two agreed to meet soon, possibly at a summit on the global financial crisis in Washington this week, the Kremlin said.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday that Moscow was not satisfied with new U.S. proposals on missile defense and nuclear arms reduction and that positions expressed earlier by Obama provided hope for a “more constructive” approach.

“We have paid attention to the positions that Barack Obama has published on his site. They instill hope that we can examine these questions in a more constructive way,” Lavrov said after an 80-minute meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of a Middle East peace conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Lavrov said there would be further consultations on defense issues with the United States this year but suggested that any final agreements would likely come only after the Obama administration takes office on Jan. 20.

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Gasparri Says Obama Win Will Please Al Qaeda (Corriere della Sera, ITALY)

President Napolitano focuses on “great sign of the vitality of American democracy”, and “unity” of two rivals.

ROME – Barack Obama’s victory has Italian politicians agreeing, at least on an adjective. The election of a black president to the White House is “historic” and could “change the world”. But there is bitter controversy over the jubilation of the Centre-left at the Democratic candidate’s triumph. Hackles were also raised by a statement from the People of Freedom’s group leader in the Senate, Maurizio Gasparri, which upset the PD and other political groups. “There are lots of question marks over Obama. With him in the White House, Al Qaeda could well be happier”.

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What Europe Wants from Obama (Der Spiegel, GERMANY)

In conversations and e-mail exchanges with SPIEGEL ONLINE, European leaders and thinkers express their wishes for US President-elect Barack Obama. Yes, they want the US to join the Kyoto successor. And, yes, they want to see Guantanamo close. But many also know that theirs is a view from Mars.

DPA

Barack Obama in Berlin: "If we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny."

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Obama wins historic US election (BBC, UK)

Democratic Senator Barack Obama has been elected the first black president of the United States, prompting celebrations across the country.

"It's been a long time coming, but tonight... change has come to America," the president-elect told a jubilant crowd at a victory rally in Chicago.

His rival John McCain accepted defeat, and called on his supporters to lend the next president their goodwill.

The BBC's Justin Webb says the result will have a profound impact on the US.

He says the American people have made two fundamental statements about themselves: that they are profoundly unhappy with the status quo, and that they are slamming the door on the country's racial past.

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