Hope, Change and Recession, Volume IV

By the second half of 2011, the Arab Spring had moved into a particularly violent phase. In Libya, the long reign of Muammar Khadafy came to an end as this own people finally killed him. Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad resorted to ever-escalating force to retain his throne of bayonets. The optimism of the early days had, by now, passed. Meanwhile, North Korea's Kim Jong-Il died, and the top job in the hermit kingdom passed to his son Kim Jong-Un, a man not yet 30. In Europe, the Greek financial situation continued to threaten the euro; a right-wing madman named Anders Breivik killed more than 70 people in Norway; and Rupert Murdoch tried to halt a phone hacking scandal by closing the News of the World, Britain's most popular newspaper. In the United States, the political shenanigans in Washington helped undermine America's Aaa credit rating; S&P actually lowered the rating a notch. Congress learned nothing and failed to pass necessary financial legislation. Also in this period, Wisconsin's political landscape was altered radically by recall elections sparked by Republican over-reach; the left had begun to fight back at the state level at last.

Autorentext

Jeff Myhre founded the Kensington Review in the autumn of 2002. He attended the University of Colorado where he double majored in history and international affairs. He earned his PhD at the London School of Economics in international relations. He is a member of both the Foreign Policy Association and the World Policy Institute.

Klappentext

By the second half of 2011, the "Arab Spring" had moved into a particularly violent phase. In Libya, the long reign of Muammar Khadafy came to an end as this own people finally killed him. Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad resorted to ever-escalating force to retain his throne of bayonets. The optimism of the early days had, by now, passed. Meanwhile, North Korea's Kim Jong-Il died, and the top job in the hermit kingdom passed to his son Kim Jong-Un, a man not yet 30. In Europe, the Greek financial situation continued to threaten the euro; a right-wing madman named Anders Breivik killed more than 70 people in Norway; and Rupert Murdoch tried to halt a phone hacking scandal by closing the News of the World, Britain's most popular newspaper. In the United States, the political shenanigans in Washington helped undermine America's Aaa credit rating; S&P actually lowered the rating a notch. Congress learned nothing and failed to pass necessary financial legislation. Also in this period, Wisconsin's political landscape was altered radically by recall elections sparked by Republican over-reach; the left had begun to fight back at the state level at last.