By Charles Kolb for Huffington Post

A recent Time Magazine cover story addressed whether the United States was in serious decline or still had better days ahead. Fareed Zakaria saw decline; David Von Drehle was the optimist. Both authors noted several trade, economic, and education trends to make their points, but both overlooked the way in which American values will determine our future.

 

Written by Charles Kolb and Ioanna Kohler for the Huffington Post

Can American president Barack Obama and French president Nicolas Sarkozy strengthen the ties between our two great nations? We think so and urge them to make rapprochement a high foreign-policy priority when they meet in Washington on March 30.

 

Along with the Free City of Ragusa (now called Dubrovnik), and Morocco, France was among the first sovereign states to recognize American independence in 1776. France helped by secretly providing much-needed weapons and supplies as the British colonies rebelled. For nearly 250 years, France and the United States have been close allies and partners -- and only occasionally adversaries. De Gaulle and NATO; Chirac and Iraq come to mind. Read more...

By Elliot Schwartz and Charles Johnson

The G-20 summit will not piece together the intricacies of the global financial system overnight. The April 2 meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 nations (G-20) should be seen as just the beginning of what will likely be a long, complex process to reinvigorate the global economy through financial market reforms and other measures. But that's not to say that the attendees can't move mountains. In fact, members of the G-20 can take a big step towards mitigating human suffering in low-income countries made even worse by the financial crisis.

By Elliot Schwartz and Charles Johnson

The Senate agreed Wednesday (February 4, 2009) to water-down the highly controversial ‘Buy America' provision of President Obama's stimulus bill. If the revised language of the bill means what it says--that the provision must be "applied in a manner consistent with U.S. obligations under international agreements"--we're relieved. But the battle, we're sure, is not over yet. The ‘Buy-America' clause still puts a simple-minded political calculus before the collective interests of all Americans. It still risks job loss across several export-producing sectors, all of which will need unfettered access to international markets to help pull the U.S. economy out of the current recession. And it still constitutes a potential set-back to international trade, with material welfare implications for folks at home and abroad.