NEWSWEEK: International Editions: Highlights and Exclusives, November 24, 2008 Issue

Nov. 16 NY-Nwswk-internat'l


COVER: The Obama Effect (All overseas editions). Paris Bureau Chief
Christopher Dickey examines the reaction to Obama's win on a global level.
Those who have embraced the Obama mystique have, in the process, revealed more
about their problems with racism and ethnic tensions in their own societies
than about the president-elect. Obama's example shows other countries how far
they have to go to address their own racial and ethnic divides.  Yet, it is
"increasingly clear that Obama is, in fact, the unique product of a unique
moment in America's history, a figure almost impossible to replicate or even
emulate in any other country," Dickey writes.  "In the United States itself,
it took both the worst crisis and perhaps the best-organized campaign in a
century to break the color barrier, and generations may pass before American
voters choose another black man, or a Latino or Asian or Jew, to be
president."


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169302



Murder at the Drum Tower. Beijing Bureau Chief Melinda Liu reports on the
case of Tang Yongming, who stabbed to death Todd Bachman, father-in-law of
U.S. men's Olympic indoor-volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, and then jumped to
his death from the balcony of Beijing's Drum Tower.  Authorities figured out
that Tang was no terrorist, but the troubles that destroyed him -- the loss of
his job, the collapse of his marriage, heartbreak over his wastrel only child
-- are all too-common across China. The country is the world's most stressful:
three decades of reforms have shredded China's safety net and transformed
society beyond recognition. That's why, as Chinese leaders prepare to mark the
30th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's capitalist reforms next month, they're
also frantically pumping more than half a trillion dollars into their economy
in hopes of staving off a downturn.


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169164



POINT OF VIEW: The Most Anti-American Nation. Soner Cagaptay, senior
fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy, writes that while Obamania will help, more
will need to be done to change Turkey from the most anti-American country in
the world.  Cagaptay addresses Obama, "The lesson for you, President-elect
Obama, is clear: with such anti-Western rhetoric, and because Turkish
attachment to the West is so tenuous, your strategy must be to constantly
remind Turks that they belong to the West ... Your policy ought to be zero
tolerance toward official anti-American and anti-Western rhetoric in Turkey."


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169267



Cutting Things Down to Size.  Special Correspondent Mac Margolis examines
why, as Brazil becomes Latin America's economic pacesetter, its neighboring
countries are viewing it as target No. 1.  With a $1.4 trillion economy and a
global political agenda, Brazil stands out in a region hobbled by poverty and
poor governance. Its industry eclipses that of its neighbors, assuring Brazil
a fat regional trade surplus. And as Brazil's fortunes soar, it casts a harsh
spotlight on the shortcomings of its neighbors. The result: increased
animosity from across its borders.


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169266



A Bigger Clubhouse.  David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace and author of "Superclass: The Global Power
Elite and the World They Are Making," writes that in this time of
transformation of the international system, emerging-market powers will define
the new "new world order." The need for broad global engagement around not
only the financial crisis but many other world challenges will almost
certainly lead the Obama administration to more actively engage the BRICs-a
term coined in 2001 to refer to the biggest of the emerging powers Brazil,
Russia, India and China -- and that in order to manage the challenges of the
world economy, potential rivals will become vital partners.


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169262



The One Big Buyer.  Hong Kong Bureau Chief George Wehrfritz and Special
Correspondent Akiko Kashiwagi examine why today's  financial crisis has been
good for Japan.  Japanese companies are now spending more than $1 billion a
week in outbound mergers and acquisitions, making them a critical source of
new investment in a global M&A industry battered by this year's financial
crisis. This spending spree runs counter to a sharp retrenchment globally.
With their foreign purchases surging in value in 2008 and Japanese firms
spending $61 billion overseas since Jan. 1, Japan has become the top source of
outbound M&A investment in Asia and among the top seven in the world.


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169260



PROJECT GREEN: Not Sky-High.  Jeremy Oppenheim, leader of McKinsey's
Climate Change Special Initiative, Eric Beinhocker, senior fellow at the
McKinsey Global Institute, and Diana Farrell, director of the Institute, write
that we can dramatically reduce greenhouse gases and grow the global economy
for less than we think.  New research shows that with the right mix of
policies, investments, new technologies and changes in behavior, we can shift
to a clean-energy economy.  They write, "Economic growth and a healthy climate
need not be opposing goals. By dramatically increasing carbon productivity,
just as we have increased labor and capital productivity in the past, we can
have both."


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169258



WORLD VIEW: Obama's 250 Tough Calls. Contributing Editor Stuart Taylor Jr.
examines what approach Obama's administration may take in dealing with
suspected terrorists, and what will become of the 250 men who are locked up in
the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.  "Obama should and probably will renounce all
brutal interrogation methods, not just those that the Bush administration
defines as torture," Taylor writes.  "He should and probably will discontinue
or overhaul the widely derided and largely failed system of 'military
commissions' that President Bush created in 2001 to try suspected terrorists
for war crimes. And he should and probably will announce a detailed plan to
close Guantanamo, possibly within a year."


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169175



THE LAST WORD: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author and former trader. Taleb
talks about his distrust of bankers and his advice to individual investors.
"Never take advice from anyone in a tie. They'll bankrupt you. Don't ask a
general for advice on war, and don't ask a broker for advice on money. Think
about the derivatives mess -- buying credit derivatives from these banks was
like buying insurance for the Titanic from people who were on the Titanic!"


http://www.newsweek.com/id/169336



SOURCE  Newsweek