Azerbaijan Should Seek Real Democracy by Election

• Financial Times
• September 23, 2005

In country after country in the former Soviet Union, people angered by rigged elections have toppled a string of entrenched, corrupt leaders. While their actions boosted prospects for democracy, Azerbaijan should not see this as a model to emulate when it goes to the polls in November.

Transparency Can Alleviate Poverty

• Financial Times
• March 17, 2005

Countries that are rich in natural resources are often poor because exploiting those resources takes precedence over good government. Competing oil and mining companies, backed by their governments, have often been willing to deal with anyone who could assure them of a concession.

Why I Have Campaigned Across America to Put John Kerry in the White House

• The Independent
• November 2, 2004

I have been criss-crossing the United States for the past three weeks, arguing against the re-election of President Bush. I feel strongly that he has led us in the wrong direction. The invasion of Iraq was a colossal blunder, and only by rejecting the President at the polls can we hope to escape from the quagmire in which we find ourselves.

Putin’s Heavy Hand Could Halt Russia’s Rise

• International Herald Tribune
• June 16, 2004

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has thrown the gauntlet to civil society. In an address to the nation last month he made clear that the state reigns supreme. His speech drove home just how grim Russia’s political landscape has become. In the post-Soviet period, Russia was on the way to becoming an open society.

Playing Into Their Hands

• The Los Angeles Times
• April 4, 2004

The Bush administration is in the habit of waging personal vendettas against those who criticize its policies, but bit by bit the evidence is accumulating that the invasion of Iraq was among the worst blunders in U.S. history. If the administration cannot recognize and admit its mistakes, it cannot correct its policies.

Europe Must Take a Wider View of the Future

• Financial Times
• March 30, 2004

The Wider Europe Initiative, launched recently by the European Commission to manage relations with its neighbors, looks great on paper. But the plan will be doomed to obscurity if it is allowed to moulder in the European bureaucracy. It is up to European Union members to rally behind this promising idea.

Why I Gave

• The Washington Post
• December 5, 2003

I and a number of other wealthy Americans are contributing millions of dollars to grass-roots organizations engaged in the 2004 presidential election. We are deeply concerned with the direction in which the Bush administration is taking the United States and the world.

In Ever-Richer European Union, Roma Still Live in Abject Poverty

• The Forward
• August 15, 2003

The newly expanded European Union will stretch from the Atlantic to the Aegean, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. Europeans will have 23 official languages in which to discuss how to spend their common currency. Borders have been knocked down, and cooperation has increased.

Bush’s Inflated Sense of Supremacy

• Financial Times
• March 14, 2003

With U.S. and British troops poised to invade Iraq, the rest of the world is overwhelmingly opposed. Yet Saddam Hussein is generally seen as a tyrant who must be disarmed and the United Nations Security Council has unanimously demanded that he disclose and destroy his weapons of mass destruction.

Don’t Blame Brazil

• Financial Times
• August 13, 2002

The International Monetary Fund’s $30bn rescue package for Brazil was larger than expected, and should have brought relief to the markets. But it did not. After an initial rally, bond interest rates have settled at levels incompatible with long-term solvency. The country’s benchmark C bonds yield about 22 percent in dollar terms.