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INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS: HIGHLIGHTS AND EXCLUSIVES, MAY 12, 2008

COVER: The Post-American World (All overseas editions). In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, “The Post-American World,” Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria writes that there are many reasons for Americans to be pessimistic these days. American anxiety springs from “a sense that large and disruptive forces are coursing through the world. In almost every industry, in every aspect of life, it feels like the patterns of the past are being scrambled,” he writes. “Americans see that a new world is coming into being, but fear it is one being shaped in distant lands and by foreign people.” Zakaria adds that Americans are still debating the nature and extent of anti-Americanism. One side  says that the problem is real and worrying and that we must woo the world back. The other says this is the inevitable price of power and that many countries are envious, so we can safely ignore their griping. “But while we argue over why they hate us, ‘they’ have moved on, and are now far more interested in other, more dynamic parts of the globe. The world has shifted from anti-Americanism to post-Americanism,” he writes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135380

The Victim of Success. London Reporter William Underhill reports that although a recent study by the European Union ranked London’s inner city as the richest patch of Europe, measured by incomes, seven of England’s 20 poorest local authorities are located in London. Another study from the bankers UBS this year found that London had outstripped Moscow to become the world’s most expensive city. Result: “A Tale of Two Cities,” according to the Conservative Party-backed Centre for Social Justice, in which the divide between rich and poor grows and the middle-class gets squeezed out of town.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135294

The Return of The Old Caudillo. Special Correspondent Mac Margolis reports that although Latin America is finally thriving economically, populist rhetoric is getting louder and stronger. The assortment of caudillo firebrands, self-styled socialists now presiding over a large patch of Latin America, lack any discernible doctrine that would fuel a common agenda. But what distinguishes these rulers is something far more familiar and potentially troublesome: populism. With the old split between social liberals and free-market champions that once ran through the hemisphere largely faded, a divide between democrats and authoritarian populists, the famous caudillos, has reemerged, says Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135304

This Nation Is an Island. Tokyo Bureau Chief Christian Caryl and Special Correspondent Akiko Kashiwagi report that resistance toward foreign investors encapsulates growing Japanese anxiety about their economy in an increasingly competitive global environment. Recently some of the buried legacy of isolationism—manifested in a stubborn resistance to foreign investment and a reluctance to capitalize on the opportunities of globalization—has been coming back to the surface. “In the old days, foreign investors had no choice but to invest in Japan, and Japan could afford to respond to their calls [for change] gradually,” says Kengo Nishiyama, strategist at Nomura Securities. “Today it has competitors in emerging countries; unless Japan moves fast, its relative attractiveness could fade.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135288

GLOBAL INVESTOR: More Than a Bear Rally. Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, writes that the latest GDP growth numbers show the United States may be able to avoid an outright recession, just as Japan dodged an extended period of negative growth for much of the 1990s. “Japanese policymakers took aggressive steps on both the fiscal and monetary fronts to cushion the economy from a deflationary shock, and strong export growth helped the economy expand at an average 1.5 percent,” Sharma writes. “Similarly, helped by exports, the U.S. economy could expand at an average 1 to 1.5 percent over the next few quarters … That’s subpar growth, but still a far cry from the Armageddon scenario that many deemed plausible just a few weeks ago.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135293

SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW: Endless Summer. Senior Editor and Movie Critic David Ansen opens this summer movie preview with an essay about the lack of good movie endings. Movies are expert at starting with a bang, he writes, but by the final reel, “inspiration is often replaced by rote—or the smell of fear, as the corporate suits strong-arm their filmmakers to come up with a socko finale that desperately tries to please everyone but ultimately satisfies no one.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/132858

WORLD VIEW: Reaching Out to Pyongyang. Morton Abramowitz, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, and Stephen Bosworth, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, write that what North Korea wants more than anything is “political compensation,” a relationship with Washington, in which the United States would stop making threats, drop all sanctions and start treating North Korea as a friendly country. “As Pyongyang sees it, such moves would finally allow it to join the global economic community—key to its survival,” they write. “Until then, North Korea will hold on to its nuclear weapons as an insurance policy against a U.S. attack and, more important, the threat that Washington will simply ignore North Korea and allow it to starve in the dark.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135290

THE LAST WORD: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan talks about the accusation that he and 70 AKP party members are seeking to undermine Turkey’s secular state, and the country’s role in facilitating recent negotiations between Israel and Syria. “For 40 years Turkey had no diplomatic relations with Syria. When [the AKP] came to power we decided to normalize these relations. Our policy is to win friends, and not to make enemies,” Erdogan says. “It’s important for us to try to gain some ground—if we can help achieve peace in the Middle East, that will have a major positive impact on the region.”          

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135291                  

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