Uni Eropa: Super-Special Power?

Verdinand, apa keunikan yang dimiliki oleh Uni Eropa? Pertanyaan ini ditanyakan oleh paman saya yang notabene bukan ex-mahasiswa HI, dosen HI apalagi peneliti HI. Pertanyaan ini muncul setelah paman saya itu membaca secara singkat isi skripsi saya yang berkaitan dengan Uni Eropa. Untuk menunjukkan kepiawaian saya dalam kajian Eropa, saya menjawab pertanyaan tersebut secara membabi buta. Anehnya, paman saya justru bingung setelah mendengar jawaban saya. Terang saja, karena jawaban saya tidak dijelaskan secara ringkas, sistematis dan jelas. Mungkin inilah jawaban yang seharusnya: Read more

O Drama of Obama

Amalia Faris*

Just a matter of skin changes…
(Sani, a friend, in Mas Rahmat’s Blog)

A drama has been going in our TV. World medias named him as the real American Dream, his poor grandmother in Kenya interviewed at least ten times in a day, his Indonesian ‘friends’ all of a sudden show up, his Indonesia elementary school teachers telling stories of how the little guy did in school, even some clueless Indonesian make a coalition devoted for him.

Barack (Husein) Obama, the US President-will-be that has been too much valued lately. Is he really that good? The savior that going to save us from the turmoil Bush made? Well, the truth is Obama and McCain have much more common than differences.

Is he really going to change the US foreign policy? Don’t take it for granted. When Obama was asked about the decision to withdraw the US troops from Iraq, he said that yes, he will surely do it, and (this is the part where the flop happens) he think that it is much wiser to concentrate the troops for another country that endangered America most, Iran (and) or North Korea. Surprisingly, the choice to attack Iran is the one that even Bush not dares to take it (yet). Read more

OPEC, Euro 2008 dan Myanmar

Verdinand Siahaan

Minggu ini menyisakan tiga berita yang cukup menarik untuk dibahas. Berita pertama mengenai Indonesia keluar dari OPEC. Kedua, Menlu Indonesia meminta untuk melepaskan Aung San Suu Kyi. Terakhir (meskipun agak maksa) tim favorit saya, Inggris tidak ikut Euro 2008. Ketiga berita ini memiliki satu kesamaan yaitu perubahan status yang tadinya dianggap sebagai aktor penting menjadi tidak penting lagi. Mari kita simak satu demi satu. Read more