Word: european
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...wouldn't know that to look at the Friday's activities on European stock markets. After rises of nearly 4% during Friday trading, London's FTSE 100 index closed up 1.5%, while Frankfurt's Dax and Paris' CAC 40 ended the week up by 1.3% and 0.67% respectively. In the wake of Wall Street's 6.7% gain Thursday, Asian markets also largely advance Friday, with Tokyo's Nikkei closing 2.7% higher, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng finishing 2.4% stronger. Given the macro-economic moroseness, what's with the market giggles...
...Afghanistan will be at the top of the U.S. priorities for Europe," says Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy and defense at the Centre for European Reform, a London think tank. He says Obama will appeal for more soldiers in the dangerous southern part of Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents. "Obama will put more troops in the country and expect Europe to do the same. And even though all European governments are short on troops and money, many will respond in kind." (See pictures of Obama's family tree...
...Europeans saw a fervent wish fulfilled with Barack Obama's election victory, but it could mean more than they bargained for. For all their enthusiasm over the prospect of a new tone from Washington, European governments now face the sobering realization that the new President is far better placed than his predecessor to call on Europe to put more troops in harm's way in Afghanistan. It is a call they'd rather not take, but one that some may find hard to refuse...
...Others fear that Obama will expose the gulf between the European Union's rhetoric on foreign policy and its capability. Many member governments bridled at President George W. Bush, but his grating unilateralism gave them an alibi for inaction, says Daniel Korski, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. That excuse will no longer fly with Obama, Korski says. "Afghanistan will be viewed in Washington as a litmus test of whether Europeans should be taken seriously as strategic partners," he says. "It will be the issue that pushes them to take more responsibility for global problems...
...Obama can already count on a European political climate that has changed dramatically since the 2003 invasion of Iraq: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown all enjoy comfortable working relationships with the outgoing Bush Administration. (See pictures of Iraq's revival...