Linkagogo Archive 1: International Politics

Stephen Hill Linkography: Facing Up

What Obama Can Learn From Old Europe
Posted: 28 January 2009 - Huffington Post. In spite of the economic crisis, the European governments will strive to make energy and climate change a win-win situation. They intend to implement far-reaching conservation measures and enact the world's most ambitious carbon-trading program. Thus, more green jobs will be created and investment in the low-carbon economy of the future can be promoted.

10 Steps to Better Elections
Article: 1 May 2005 - Sierra Magazine. Also on the CCMC website. Hill argues that - when elections are unfair, the environment loses. While polls show that large majorities of the American public favor strong environmental protections, those aspirations are routinely frustrated by a flawed voting system. And as long as the winner-take-all system remains intact, the Green Party is doomed to retain the role of spoiler instead of electoral leader for environmental issues.

Obama the Impotent
Posted: 25 September 2009 - Huffington Post. Also posted as follows: The Guardian website 22 September 2009. And at: Pumas Unleashed 23 September 2009, under the title - World view of Obama: Impotent Leader. The Obama administration’s accomplishments on climate change have been a disappointment. Europe has announced donations of $2bn to $15bn a year to help developing nations cope with climate warming, yet Obama has not offered anything close to that amount. Europe also wants binding targets for developed nations, proposing a 20% reduction from 1990 levels. Obama has said such targets should be voluntary but verifiable.

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Steven Hill Linkography: U.S. Slips

Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico: US Needs a National Energy Policy like Europe’s
Article: 17 May 2010 – Social Europe Journal. Every day that the massive black plume off the Louisiana coast sprays into the sea is a reminder of how much the United States has failed to transition to a modern energy regime. Given the stakes over global warming, Europe has emerged as ‘the indispensable nation’, while the United States, the largest per capita polluter in the world, continues to fiddle as the earth burns.

Hill Proposes European Economic Structure for U.S.
Article: 1 April 2011 By Alex Kessler. On March 30, Hill’s U.S. book tour took him to Georgia Tech to speak on behalf of the European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE) for the IMPACT Speaker Series. Hill’s arguments boil down to adopting social programs such as free education and healthcare to support families and workers; the less people spend on necessities, the more they can spend commercially, circulating money.

Germany Speaks Out
Article: 12 November 2010 – New York Times. Also published as: Merkel, Germany, Overthrow Obama, U.S., at G-20. Following America’s catalytic role in bringing the global economy to the brink of disaster, followed by Obama’s weakened political position after the Nov. 2 mid-term elections, the U.S. is now losing the global argument over what is the best development model for the 21st century. At the Group of 20 meeting in Seoul Germany spoke out. Let’s hope Obama and Geithner were listening because the world is no longer automatically following America’s lead.

America's Failed Model for the World

Article: September 16, 2009 - The Guardian. As Europeans watch the United States flailing about over something as basic as healthcare, they are reminded once again of the impotent US response following Hurricane Katrina. As one European put it...

The Myth of Europe's High Taxes
Article: 23 February 2010 – On the Commons. This myth is busted! The truth is, Hill points out, that when all the supports and services Europeans and Americans receive are listed on one side of a ledger and the amount of taxes and any additional out-of-pocket fees they pay are listed on the other, it turns out that Americans pay out as much as Europeans – but receive a lot less in return.

French Protesters: 'Where are you Americans?'
Blog: How's Europe Doing - posted: 23 Oct 2010 - The Washington Monthly. During a protest against proposed retirement age legislation in

France, Hill talks to some of the young protesters on the streets in Paris who wonder why young Americans, frustrated and angry over US government policies, are not out protesting like the French.

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Stephen Hill Linkography: New Europe

The European Way for America?
Panel discussion topic - Europe's Promise: 20 May 2010 - Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Panelists: Steven Hill, Kimberly Morgan, George Washington University; Mitchell Orenstein, Johns Hopkins University. Hill argues that Europe is uniquely well-suited to meet the challenges of the 21st century and that America has some catching up to do. In the discussion that ensued the panelists point out the book offers a rich trove of best practices in Europe, however, it would be a mistake to look for a single European way to compare with the US as both systems have something to learn from each other.

Europe’s Case of ‘Chief Executive Envy’

Article: March 19, 2010 – Social Europe Journal. The Lisbon Treaty went into effect late in 2009 and created a president for the European Council and a high representative for foreign affairs and security. That treaty and those two new offices were supposed to launch a new Europe that would cease ‘punching below its weight’, and finally provide an answer to Henry Kissinger’s bedeviling question: ‘Who do I call if I want to call Europe?

Troy Schneider Interviews Steven Hill
Video: Interview held 20 January 2010 - on Europe's Promise, at the New America Foundation, host Troy Schneider. A lively interview where Hill discusses European approaches to the economy, global warming,

politics, social democracy and other topics covered in his book. He describes the European Union as the 'new kid on the block' and goes on to explain how Europe's robust new standard for developing a modern society is taking care of its people in an environmentally sustainable way.

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