To Be In Florence Is To Reflect

I Find Chinese Debates About Their Political System Domestically, But Also About China's Claims In The International System, To Be Among The Most Original And Surprising And Exciting Of Our Time. The Starting Point Is A System That None Of Us Had Anticipated, Which I Call Leninist Capitalism, But Also Obviously Because It Is The Most Important Emerging Power. The Question Of China's Relations With The United States In Particular, And The Rest Of The World In General, Is The Question Of War And Peace In The 21st Century.

Well, That's The Way Democracy Works. We Have To Build This Europe With The Material We Have At Our Disposal. And This Material Is National Democracy.

But Transitions From The Politics Of Violence To Democratic Compromise Are Always Messy.

It Is Not Just That It Is Profoundly Offensive To The Leaders And People Of A Democratic Germany To Paint Hitler On The Wall (or On The Remnants Of The Wall). It Is Also Consummately Counterproductive. Such Sauce Does Not Make The Meat Of Substantive Criticism More Interesting. It Means That The Whole Dish Is Pushed Away. It Does Not Mean That Britain's Voice Is Listened To More Attentively In The Councils Of Europe. It Means That It Is Listened To Even Less.

I Have A Dreadful Feeling In My Bones That Future Historians May Write Of The May 2014 Elections: "this Was The Wake-up Call From Which Europe Failed To Wake Up."