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Contains 5 possible coalitions that could result from the recent german election

I was surprised by how measured this article was and how much I agreed with the analysis expressed in it, given that it was written by Pat Buchanan, whose views I find reprehensible. He offers a smart and historically conscious analysis of the political moves Obama is making right now, moves he believes might allow the president to create a Democratic coalition that will outlast his tenure. Buchanan says that Obama presented the Fiscal Cliff negotiations in such a way as to divide the Republicans and make them look bad whatever they did, and that he has engineered similarly divisive and damaging strategies for the upcoming fights over the Chuck Hagel nomination, gun control, and the debt ceiling.

Currently, Shinzo Abe is the most popular prime minister to date and Liberal Democratic Party leads a coalition which has the majority of the Diet's lower house, but he is in talks to dissolve the lower house and have a snap election. Abe promised to end the heavy deflation that has plagued the Japanese economy since the 90's, but since he has come in, the sales tax has increased from 5%-8% and is threatening to rise to 10%, to make up for the deflation of prices. Unfortunately, right now, the way the lower house is set up, postponing this tax increase would cost Abe the support of big businesses and senior bureaucrats. The governor of the Japanese National Bank, Haruhiko Kuroda, believes that raising the tax only stands to help Japan ease its national debt which currently stands at 240% of the GDP. Kuroda fears that if the tax is postponed, Abe will lose credibility with the people, since he promised he would work to fix the Japanese debt problem. Sadly, though Abe promised to bring growth to the economy and mandate his ways to serious economic structural reforms, the majority of his ideas are still sitting soundly in square 1, even with support from the leading coalition in the Japanese Parliament. The only lucky part about this for Abe is that the opposition parties are facing scandals and are not ready for a snap election, so Abe could gain the support he needs to get his ideas moving in the right direction.

Germany created a new government coalition, with 2 parties left of center and 1 to the rightish. The leader has a very progressive agenda but not everyone in the coalition or the older German population is on board, so it will be interesting to see how the coming years play out.

PARIS - France will join the coalition of Western and Middle Eastern countries carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, the country's defense minister said on Wednesday, with the first strikes likely to come in the next couple of weeks.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has summoned military attaches of NATO countries and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, asking the officials to clarify their countries' allegations that Russian airstrikes in Syria have hit civilian targets.

Yemen (on April 29th of this year) had an outbreak of 5 COVID cases, and an immediate 2-week lockdown was imposed. Though that number seems quite small, the health system was quickly overrun. This is because Yemen's health department has been "devastated by war," and though Saudi Arabia declared a unilateral cease-fire on April 9th, airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition increased 30% from April 22nd - 29th. Even pre-COVID, Yemen had a cholera outbreak in January, quickly exacerbate by torrential rains and putting 5 million children under the age of 5 at risk.

A coronavirus outbreak in Yemen poses a dire threat that will add to the conditions that have been increased by the war. Yemen's health care system has been devastated by the war and is in no means able to handle a pandemic. Moreover, the increase in airstrikes lead by Saudi Arabia, despite a cease-fire, can and will increase the spread of the virus. Humanitarian efforts will decrease as a result and the already wrecked healthcare system will suffer more. It is clear the U.S and other members of the UN security council need to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to implement a cease fire.

I think that it's also important to mention that the United States is complicit in the crisis in Yemen. We not only provide support to Saudi Arabia but sell them weapons, most importantly bombs, that are used against Yemeni civilians. A bipartisan bill to end US involvement in the war passed the Senate last year, but was vetoed by President Trump. Not many people seem to know about our role in the war, and that needs to change.

From this article, I learned that the U.S. push for U.N. sanctions on Iran is entirely unsupported by other members of the U.N. security council, as many members believe that the U.S. has no legal standing to push for sanctions. Reimposing U.N. sanctions on Iran was part of the "snapback provision" of the Iran nuclear deal, but Trump withdrew from the deal 2 years ago. It is because of this withdrawal that the other members believe the U.S. no longer has the legal right to enforce the provision and impose U.N. sanctions.

The U.S.' push for sanctions is interesting because sanctions could be possible if the U.S. had not pulled out of the of the 2015 Iran Nuclear agreement. However, now that President Trump wants to impose sanctions he can not because of his administration past actions. The U.S. said they are fine standing alone of this issue, but this process could have been easier, and they could have possible have built a coalition around the sanctions.

A referendum in Chile just rejected a draft of a new Constitution pushed by the new Chilean President Gabriel Boric and his extremely progressive coalition that would have replaced Augusto Pinochet's Constitution. The Constitution included the right to public health care, abortion, free speech, clean air and water, it would have given the federal government greater control over the Chilean economy, and would have officially recognized the sovereignty of Indigenous groups across the country, making it the third plurinational nation in South America. However, 61% of Chileans opposed the new Constitution, and a new assembly will have to be elected to redraft it. This rejection is interesting; does it highlight the overall mood in Latin American politics right now? Is this a rejection of liberal policies? What will the next few months have in store for Chile; bureaucratic breakdown, or unity around a new Constitution?

Really interesting article, Nick! Keep in mind that "liberal" in the international context means low government intervention and capitalism, so the correct way to phrase the question is "Is this a rejection of social democratic policies?" There was a wave of social democracy in Latin America in the 1990s and early 2000s, so I wonder if this is an effort to move that further, an effort which is contested. https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/chile-could-become-plurinational-what-does-that-mean/ As you know, there are many levels of inclusion and exclusion in different societies, and the indigenous rights movement in South America carries a dimension of racism held over from the colonial era, in addition to neocolonialism and extractive capitalism centered on banks and the owners of land.