Nuclear moratorium

In "a change in tone over 24 hours" that Le Monde deems "spectacular," Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared a 3-month moratorium in Germany on old nuclear power plants.

Prompting the longtime proponent to halt production in certain plants is, of course, the nuclear disaster looming in Japan. There, plant explosions have led to a "much higher than normal level" of radiation in Japan since the 9.0 earthquake last Friday. (credit for map showing Japan's nuclear power plants)

In the United States, the Obama administration reportedly seeks "to reassure Americans that nuclear power is safe."

That effort contrasts with Merkel's announcement of plans for inspection of Germany's 17 reactors, some with designs much like that in Japan. (In similar vein, French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed "disquiet" over the still-unfolding tragedy.)

Merkel described the catastrophe in Japan as a moment for reflection by "the entire world."

Let's hope that reflection entails robust application of the precautionary principle.

Gender equality & the G-20bis

This year's official photo from the G-20 summit, held this past weekend in Toronto, Canada, looks pretty much like last year's from London, England: there's German Chancellor Angela Merkel in orange, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in white, and standing 2 rows behind her, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, till tomorrow the President of the Philippines. Et alia. Another G-20 country now also has a woman leader, but Julia Gillard, Prime Minister only since Friday, sent Australia's Treasurer, Wayne Swan (top middle).

... and counting ...

(Occasional sobering thoughts.) U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) (below left) said this yesterday about the ongoing NATO role in Afghanistan:

'My view is that the mission has to be very clear. I believe it is not now. ... I don’t believe we can build a democratic state in Afghanistan. I believe it will remain a tribal entity.'

Not encouraging words from the Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. But not much of a surprise, either, given recent news from that Central Asian country:

► An airstrike 10 days ago is said to have killed as many as 90 persons near Kunduz, and though it is hard to say how many were "militants," it is known that among the injured was a 10-year-old boy. NATO is investigating the decision to strike of German troops, who place the death toll closer to 50. In Berlin yesterday, Chancellor Angela Merkel (below right) promised "full clarification," "and expressed regret for possible civilian casualties, stating as parliament renewed debate regarding Germany's ongoing involvement:

'Every innocent person who is killed in Afghanistan is one too many.'

► Just this weekend, Afghanistan endured "a wave of bombings, ambushes and killings" that left 39 civilians and 5 U.S. troops dead.

► The passage of 3 weeks since voting for President has yet to yield a winner, and tarnishing indications that incumbent, Hamid Karzai, will be the likely winner is a "chaotic count ... marred by allegations of widespread irregularities including phantom polling stations and stuffed ballot boxes."
As for Iraq, scattered violence persists even as the United States continues its plan to withdraw combat troops before next summer comes to an end.

With all this in mind, here's the casualty count since our post 6 weeks ago:

► Iraq Body Count reports that between 93,081 and 101,578 Iraqi women, children, and men have died in the conflict in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, representing an increase of between 562 and 572 deaths in the last 6 weeks. According to the U.S. Defense Department, 4,343 American servicemembers have been killed in Iraq, representing 15 servicemember deaths in the last 6 weeks. (As posted, U.S. troops are the only foreign forces remaining in Iraq.)

► Respecting the conflict in Afghanistan, military casualties in Afghanistan stand at 830 Americans and 55 other coalition servicemembers. That's an increase of 67 and 37, respectively, in the last 6 weeks, and a total servicemember casualty count of 1,384.

On July 17

On this day in ...
... 1979 (30 years ago today), Nicaragua's capital of Managua fell to Sandinista rebels. In the words of the BBC, "The notorious US-trained National Guard has crumbled and its surviving commanders are negotiating a surrender." Within days the Sandinistas, who'd long been fighting the government in power, would establish a revolutionary government in the Central American country; they would rule until losing a national election in 1988. (map credit)
... 1954 (55 years ago today), Angela Dorothea Kasner was born in the city of Hamburg in what was then West Germany, to a father who was a Luthern minister and a mother who was a schoolteacher. That same year the family moved to East Germany, where Angela grew up. She learned to speak fluent Russian in the course of earning a doctorate in physical chemistry. Since 2005 Angela Merkel (right) has served as Germany's 1st woman Chancellor, after having become active in politics during the democracy movement of 1989. Forbes magazine ranks her the #1 most powerful woman in the world.

(Prior July 17 posts are here and here.)

More on Merkel

Making freedom one of the main themes of both her domestic and foreign policy, Angela Merkel isn’t mealy mouthed about human rights. Where former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder spoke only behind closed doors to his Russian or Chinese counterparts on the subject of human rights, Merkel (right), just named the most powerful woman in the world, has publicly denounced increased human rights and press freedom violations in Russia and raised human rights issues several times during her visit this past week to China (she's also told President Bush to shut down Guantánamo and criticized both torture and the death penalty). Everywhere, she makes a point of meeting with opposition leaders, as she did in China, meeting with journalists, a photographer and well known blogger who’ve all run into trouble for criticizing the government. Germany’s business leaders are not so happy about Merkel’s outspokenness, fearing it will hinder trade. Indeed, where Schröder brought back lucrative contracts from Russia and China, Merkel has been less successful. But German politicians say this has nothing to do with Merkel’s human rights stance: business is bad for everyone in Russia right now, and it’s harder to win contracts in China as competition stiffens. Obviously, Merkel’s East German upbringing is what makes the difference. Perhaps the fact that she knows what she’s talking about will make a difference with her audiences as well, encouraging opposition and getting human rights onto the agenda.

Taking the Global Pulse

The Pew Research Center recently released its 5th annual survey of global attitudes, reporting the opinions of over 45,000 people in 47 nations towards other countries, global threats, and world leaders. The report is so chock-full of information that it's hard to know where to start. Perhaps with the most obvious: Since 2002, the image of the United States has declined in most parts of the world, with favorable opinions dropping as low as 9% in Turkey and 30% in Germany. The US remains quite popular in much of sub-Saharan Africa, but its image has suffered in much of Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. The cause? Obviously more complex than can be related in a poll, but the report finds a "widespread belief that the U.S. acts unilaterally in the international arena." Moreover, "at least half of those surveyed in 43 of 47 countries [say] the U.S. should remove its troops from Iraq as soon as possible" -- all the more relevant in light of Bush's rejection yesterday of troop pullout and the House's vote in response to require withdrawal of most troops by April 1. And while most world leaders, including Bush, Putin, Chavez, and Ahmadinejad are widely distrusted in the arena of foreign affairs, confidence in Angela Merkel's foreign policy decisions is generally high throughout Europe (tho' lower in the Middle East). While eschewing leaders of individual powerful nations, most of the world views the United Nations favorably, with some negative views from the Middle East but overwhemingly positive opinions in a number of predominantly Muslim nations elsewhere in the world.

Merkel leaves her mark on EU Presidency

This weekend ended the auspicious EU Presidency by the German government, and a very strong woman. As Portugal takes the reins it will be shadowed by some very large feminine footprints.
Chancellor Merkel set out to make a difference with her leadership and well, by all accounts she did, if just a bit. There was the well-known tug of war on climate change at the G-8. The Chancellor managed to win this effort, just barely, by pulling her colleagues, pas sans Bush, slightly onto the side of the environment. And then there was the constitutional revival. During the backroom (and frontroom) brawling, Sarkozy emerged from hidden negotiations to update reporters on how happy he was to serve as Merkel's "ambassador"--an unusual statement from France's new male heir not lost on the European press. As a German Minister of State recounted to me, it was actually the Ukraines who stepped in at the eleventh hour to convince the Poles to accept the compromise, another man, but no bother.
Yet, with all this fanfare it was easy to miss another key initiative set in motion by the Chancellor surely to be important marker in the coming EU discourse---partnerships with African governments on improving social, economic and environmental unrest. The Germans lead a number of EU-wide dialogues on security and conflict which moved away from the usual portrayal of endless corruption and war on the continent to focus on strategies that can make actual progress. Last week, the Federal Foreign Office and GTZ hosted one such meeting on African and European security related to desertfication and drought, climate change, conflict and forced migration.
This is no small human rights issue. Some 240,000 Africans are smuggled into the EU annually with 100,000 attempting to enter the EU by crossing the Mediterranean.
They are leaving poorly tended agricultural drylands all over Africa in search of employment. This year some will die in their march across the Sahara hoping to reach a boat. Others will wait out their fate in bulging refugee camps. Still others will die at sea. The German dialogue facilitated some of the most honest debates I've witnessed in years on what Europe needs to do if it really wants to change the environment-poverty-migration dynamic. These findings I am told will be passed on to the Portuguese with importance and then debated by the EU this fall. Merkel's government has also vowed to step-up its work for Africa and to push the EU even further. However small the reforms that actually resulted in her six-month tenure, the woman Chancellor has definately set the pace for her male colleagues. All in all, a very good run.

Write On! 'Gender & the Long Postwar'

(Write On! is an occasional item about notable calls for papers.)
Papers comparing changes in Europe and the United States, particularly changes in gender relations, since the end of the World War II, are sought for "Gender and the Long Postwar: Reconsideration of the United States and the Two Germanys, 1945-1989," a conference set for May 30-31, 2008. Conveners are Sonya Michel, University of Maryland-College Park, Karen Hagemann, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Corinna Unger, German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C. Themes of the conference, to be held at the Institute: "War, Memory and the (Re)construction of Gender"; "Migration, Immigration and Changing Gender and Sexual Identities"; "Education, Employment, Consumerism: New Roles for Women"; "Social Citizenship and the Gendering of Welfare States"; "Politics, Protest and Civil Society"; "New Sexualties"; and "Gender, Postwar, and German and U.S. Historiography." October 1's the deadline for paper proposals; details are here. (Pictured at left is Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor since 2005. Thanks to Legal History Blog for the head's up on the call for papers.)

German Women WWII Slaves Seek Recognition

As Holocaust compensation payments reach completion in Germany for both German and non-German wartime slave laborers, over 1000 German women who’d been slave laborers in Siberian labor camps are excluded from German fund set up to compensate Germans imprisoned by Communist authorities for political reasons. Of the roughly 20,000 young German women and girls taken prisoner by the Red Army and forced to do heavy manual labor for over 4 years, fewer than 2000 are estimated to survive. Released into East Germany in 1949, the women were forbidden to discuss their experiences and have been excluded from the fund to compensate former political prisoners because they were never put on trial. Arnold Vaatz, a legislator in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has, like Merkel, spent years campaigning for the political prisoners, and he's trying to get another bill passed to create a 5-million-euro package for these women, who say they are less concerned about the money than about the recognition and respect they’ve been seeking for almost 60 years.

Mourning Constitutional

Movement afoot to take a step toward greater European integration that's been moribund since 2005, when voters in France and the Netherlands said "non" and "nee," respectively, to ratification.
On the eve of this week's European Union summit Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) of Germany, current holder of the EU presidency, put forward a plan for a streamlined treaty that would do much of what the spurned document would've, yet would lose the name of European Constitution. Merkel's said her initial meetings, particularly with Poland, met with "'serious snags.'" New French President Nicholas Sarkozy, whose party won a legislative majority yesterday, wants things simplified, and outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair resists giving the Charter of Fundamental Rights supranational effect. Only time will tell whether Merkel's initiative will bear fruit.
In any event, proposals to pare the document seem like a good idea if Europe is to embrace fully the clarity of comprehension that popular sovereignty requires. To one schooled in the world's oldest written Constitution still in existence -- a charter that even as amended weighs in at well under 20 pages -- Europe's 474-page version has always seemed a tad on the long side.