RealClearWorld - Switzerland

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Switzerland a Model for Europe's Future - Tony Barber, Financial Times

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Swiss Muslims' Assault on Nation's Flag - Soeren Kern, Hudson New York

An immigrant group based in Bern has called for the emblematic white cross to be removed from the Swiss national flag because as a Christian symbol it "no longer corresponds to to...

Swiss Defend Their Island of Prosperity - Walter Mayr, Der Spiegel

The people currently coming to Switzerland are not just there for the beautiful landscape. They want to get out of the euro zone and into the Alpine country, for several hours or m...

Swiss Fear the End of Economic Paradise - Christian Teevs, Der Spiegel

By seeking safety in the Swiss franc, global investors have caused its value to skyrocket. But the currency's rapid appreciation hassignificantly hurt exports and tourism -- and ...

Hard Times Ahead in World's Cash Haven - Catherine McLean, Globe & Mail

The Swiss now find themselves strapped with a currency overvalued by more than 30 per cent, Ms. Kubli estimated this week. As of Friday, the Swiss franc traded at 77 cents agains...

Austerity Works, Just Ask Switzerland - Niall Ferguson, Newsweek

The real lessons for the United States are clear. Those who run up debt in good times can borrow only so much more when a recession strikes. And heavily indebted governments postpo...

Swiss-EU Marriage on the Rocks - Serge Maillard, Europhrenia

Concerning relations with the EU, the Swiss government "does not know what it wants," writes Geneva daily Le Temps, quoting parliamentarian Maximilian Reimann. EU membership is ...

European Anti-Islam Movement Grows - Mildrade Cherfils, Global Post

Paris conference brings together speakers from across Europe to rail against the dangers of Islamization....

Direct Democracy Threatens Euro Elites - George Jonas, National Post

To govern a representative democracy, it's enough to occupy society's high ground - the major political parties, the courts, the educational systems, the civil service. In a direct...

The Rise of Europe's Right-Wing Populists - Der Spiegel

All across Europe, right-wing populist parties are enjoying significant popular support. Led by charismatic politicians like Geert Wilders, they are exploiting fear of Muslim immig...

Europe's Strangest Government - Mathieu von Rohr, Der Spiegel

These days the Swiss are in the grips of a strange fever that is making headlines in newspapers and on TV. Anyone visiting the country would have a hard time figuring out what al...

The World's Most Wired Countries - RealClearWorld

Which are the world's most Internet friendly places?...

Why the Swiss Won't Extradite Polanski - Bruce Crumley, Time

The answer appears to be the confidential testimony given Jan. 26 by the original prosecutor in the case....

The World Can Learn From Switzerland - Richard Rahn, Brussels Journal

Economists, political scientists, reporters and pundits spend too much of their time looking at dysfunctional societies and trying to explain why there are poverty, joblessness a...

Populists Push for EU Minaret Ban - Charles Hawley, Der Spiegel

What could be more European than a castle? The Continent is dotted with them, often menacingly perched on forested hilltops overlooking rivers or ancient trading routes -- importan...

Can Switzerland Really Be Neutral? - Steve Kettman, Foreign Policy

No place in Europe has clung to an anachronistic, airbrushed image longer than Switzerland. The country's oddly entrenched reputation for pristine and inviolable "neutrality" has l...

Can Asia Rule the World? - Mahbubani & Chesterman, Japan Times

DAVOS, Switzerland — Is there an "Asian way" for resolving global challenges? The conventional answer is no. But elements of an Asian way are gradually emerging. Given Asia's...

Switzerland's Misguided Minaret Ban - Claire Berlinski, City Journal

My qualifications as an alarmist about the Islamization of Europe are second to none, according to my critics. But even I cannot find a good legal, political, or moral argument for...

The Death of Switzerland - Denis MacShane, Newsweek

In the third man, Orson Welles famously mocks Switzerland by saying, "Five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." This was never quite ...

China Is Dictating Terms to the West - Rowan Callick, The Australian

This may have been true for some time, but it is only since it surged ahead through the economic crisis - the US-European downturn, not strictly a global event - that it has realis...

Berlin, Bern Squabble over Tax Cheats - Philipp Wittrock, Der Spiegel

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared at a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Chancellery in Berlin on Monday, she expected the Middle E...

Europe Risks Prolonged Recession - Paul De Grauwe, Financial Times

The Great Depression taught us several lessons. The first one is that central banks must be ready to provide ample liquidity to save the banking system. Present-day central banks d...

When Will Militant Islam Accept Europe? - George Jonas, National Post

It’s one of our illusions that we all inhabit the same world. In a sense we do, but in many essentials, we don’t. We may be standing next to each other on the same esca...

Defying Switzerland's Racist Reputation - Brigid Grauman, Global Post

NEUCHATEL, Switzerland - Switzerland made headlines last month after a referendum banned the building of minarets. While the vote gained Switzerland a reputation for xenophobia, th...

Minarets & Europe's Identity Crisis - Joe Wood, German Marshall Fund

Recent news story: a religious minority seeks to construct a building to conform with its faith and architectural traditions. The majority, of a different faith, denies permission....

Minaret Ban Exposes Europe's Secular Drift - Ian Buruma, Times of India

Switzerland has four mosques with minarets and a population of 3,50,000 nominal Muslims, mostly Europeans from Bosnia and Kosovo, of which about 13 per cent regularly go to prayer....

Minaret Ban Stirs Little Muslim Outrage - Uli Abshar Abdalla, Jakarta Post

It took me by surprise that news on the ban of erecting minaret passed recently through a referendum in Switzerland has stirred scant attention and comment among Muslims, including...

Swiss Resistance to Islamization - Daniel Pipes, Jerusalem Post

What importance has the recent Swiss referendum to ban the building of minarets? Some may see the 57.5 percent to 42.5% decision endorsing a constitutional amendment as nearly mean...

Swiss Vote No on Muslim Extremism - Anne Applebaum, Washington Post

A few weeks ago, I found myself walking through a Swiss village -- okay, it was really a Geneva suburb -- called Nyon. Still, it looked like a village: There was a castle on th...

Europe's Minaret Moment - Ross Douthat, New York Times

They toasted to progress in Europe’s capitals last week. On Tuesday, the Treaty of Lisbon went into effect, bringing the nations of the European Union one step closer to the ...

The Swiss and Iranian Agents of Provocation - Gwynne Dyer, Japan Times

There are only four minarets in Switzerland: one for every hundred thousand Muslims in the country. Swiss Muslims keep a low profile, so as not to excite the numerous people in the...

Swiss Minaret Ban Is a Vote for Tolerance - Ayaan Hirsi Ali, CS Monitor

The recent Swiss referendum that bans construction of minarets has caused controversy across the world. There are two ways to interpret the vote. First, as a rejection of political...

Behind the Swiss Minaret Ban - Melik Kaylan, Forbes

It may be time for the Swiss publicly to commission axonometric drawings for a splendid Calvinist church with a vibrant campanile tapering upward into a neo-Gothic spire overlooki...

Bigotry in Switzerland - The Hindu

In a referendum called by general popular initiative on November 29, the Swiss electorate voted by 57.5 per cent for a constitutional ban on the building of minarets throughout the...

Cross Libya and You Will Pay a Price - Martin Fletcher, The Times

Three days after Switzerland voted to ban minarets on mosques, enraging the Muslim world, a Libyan court has sentenced two Swiss businessmen to 16 months in prison for violating im...

Minarets and Europe's Muslim Crisis - Anas Altikriti, Al Jazeera

The mind is boggled by the fact that Switzerland, a country renowned for its tolerant nature, could come to see less than a handful of minarets as a threat to its identity and cul...

Vague Fears about Islam - Christian Science Monitor

Europe and its Muslim residents have enough problems with each other that Europe doesn't need to manufacture new ones. Yet that's what the Swiss have done by voting in a r...

Can Europe Learn to Trust its Muslims? - Tariq Ramadan, CS Monitor

It wasn't meant to go this way. For months we were told that the efforts to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland were doomed. The polls suggested that around 34...

Minarets Are Not an Essential Part of Islam - Taj Hargey, The Times

Switzerland’s referendum vote to ban minarets is needlessly xenophobic but it does not infringe the religious liberty of Swiss Muslims. Minarets remain emblematic of mosques in...

Swiss Minaret Ban Reflects Fear - Mathieu von Rohr, Der Spiegel

The Swiss have voted in favor of a complete ban on the construction of minarets. But the decision is not a reaction to problems with Muslims in the country. Instead, it reveals a d...

How the Swiss Reformed Healthcare - Ruth Dreifuss, Los Angeles Times

Writing From Geneva - In 1994, Switzerland resolved a quandary that had haunted it for nearly a century: It guaranteed universal health insurance coverage and thus enabled all its...

Blaming the Swiss Scapegoat - Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Washington Post

GENEVA -- Repercussions continue to mount here over the deal by which Switzerland will give the names of presumptive tax evaders to the U.S. government.I'm referring, of course, to...

Obama's Financial Unilateralism - F. Smith & J. Berlau, Washington Times

By Fred L. Smith Jr. and John Berlau | Sunday, May 10, 2009 President Obama has attempted to distinguish himself from his predecessor by stressing a more cooper...

The Swiss and Their Secrets - New York Times

Switzerland’s president has offered a deal. He said it would be easier to complete a new bilateral tax treaty if Washington dropped its legal action against UBS, the Swiss ba...

Tax Havens Give In to EU Pressure - Hasnain Kazim, Der Spiegel

Font:By Hasnain Kazim On Thursday, it was Liechtenstein and Andorra. On Friday, Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland likewise decided to change their banking laws to allow for...

Switzerland

Does UK Want to Become 'Britzerland'?

Swiss Must Not Stay Neutral on Iran

U.S. Tax Evaders Can No Longer Count on the Swiss

Switzerland Against the World

The Real Euro Divide Is North vs. South

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