The InternationaList: May 16, 2008

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has not hesitated to push this advantage. In February he went to Baghdad to drum up business, telling French companies at a press conference that "the time has come to return to Iraq." Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki repaid the visit this month, further strengthening ties. France also plans to build a new embassy in Baghdad and two new consulates in Erbil and Basra. French construction giant Lafarge already accounts for one in four tons of the concrete poured in Iraq. Total has been invited to develop (with Chevron) two major oilfields, and the government wants French aid in reconstructing the nuclear-power plant it first built in the 1970s. To the surrender monkeys go the spoils.

The Political Gets Personal In Egypt
By Steven A. Cook
In late May, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will visit Washington for the first time in five years, in large part to make sure U.S. aid keeps flowing. In recent years, as part of the Bush administration's Middle East democracy drive, Washington has threatened to cut Egypt's aid package—still the world's second largest—unless Mubarak liberalized his politics and increased the share of aid it devotes to democracy and governance by 133 percent.

Yet this hasn't improved Egypt's politics much: the state continues to arrest journalists and intimidate voters. In fact, the pro-democracy push may be having the opposite of its intended effect. To fund toothless liberalization initiatives, Washington has cut programs devoted to agriculture, the environment, health care and infrastructure development by 44 to 100 percent. But the United States would receive the best return on its investment if it shifted its Egypt aid back to these areas. A healthier, wealthier Egyptian population is more likely to push for democratic freedoms than a poor one being preached to by the West.

Cook is a senior fellow at The Council On Foreign Relations.

Don't Pass the Torch to China
By Christian Caryl

Today more than ever, Beijing seems unstoppable. While the United States is trying to fight a massive economic contraction and to restore its image, China is growing and extending its influence. Last month at the Boao Forum (Beijing's answer to Davos), Chinese speakers derided Washington for its financial mismanagement, called for the establishment of a new reserve currency and demanded more influence in the global economy. A few days later, Beijing showed off two nuclear subs and vowed that its blue-water force would soon project power into the Pacific and beyond. Journalist Martin Jacques recently wrote in The Guardian that "China has reached a point where it is now clearly prepared ... to assume a more active global role."