Word: realpolitiker
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Europe is among the most contested in human history, but since the Soviet Union imploded, the EU has redefined their purpose. For a millennium after the fall of Rome, realpolitik ruled European polities, creating small, warring states that competed for preeminence and hegemony. Some even dreamt of empire on the continent, based on race, ideology, glory, or all of the above. They all failed. Political cartography became a popular art: Maps were redrawn endlessly following every war. Those borders were key to separating communities with particular languages, religions, and cultures...
...honest summation of what they think they're about: "Getting stuff done," as Bill Clinton used to say. That means being flagrantly political, working the system, making the compromises necessary to get the best deal possible to enact their priorities. It is the domestic-policy equivalent of Realpolitik, and it drives partisans crazy on both sides of the political divide. Conservatives go ballistic because they don't see Hillary Clinton as a moderate at all - she's a tax-raising, socialized-health-care-loving peacenik feminazi. She and her husband steal conservative memes and tropes to hoodwink the masses. During...
...problem isn’t that ministers and their mega-churches alike are engaging in realpolitik; it’s that they pretended they wouldn’t. For the past seven years, “values voters” have had access to the presidential ear whilst still seated at the heavenly table, free to scrutinize prospective justices, pick apart legislation and crown judges. Abstinence, aggression and alienation...
...Indeed, the Arabist version of Realpolitik raises the essential question about Iraq, the one that should have been asked before the invasion: Can the U.S. impose Western niceties-democracy, a constitution, a national army-on a noncountry divided into tribes and sects and family dynasties? My guess is that Petraeus might say yes and Crocker might say no, but that both would agree the U.S. does have a role in mediating the mayhem as the Iraqis stumble toward their own solutions. The general comes to this moment more optimistic than the ambassador, which is why Crocker should be listened...
...last week in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah gunmen, he said that Islamic Jihad had refrained from firing rockets at Israel. "We decided to stop launching rockets until we could see what developed," he explained. His organization's penchant for brave but foolhardy attacks has made it immune to realpolitik, and it may take some persuading by Hamas to convince Islamic Jihad to hold off its attacks...