“Y’know, you can’t wish these things into being.” – Dan Drezner, commenting on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s “eliding of the international dimension of policymaking.”
Much of the commentary I’m seeing on responding to major crises — whether we’re talking about the global financial crisis, energy, climate change, or Middle East peace — these days ignores rather rudimentary international or domestic political realities.
And it’s not just the rubes. Bernanke’s a pretty clued-in operator, after all.
Similarly, I recently participated in a blogger breakfast with “a senior European official” who was both incredibly bright and charming who asserted that everybody already agrees on the outlines of what has to be done to solve the Israel-Palestinian problem and expressed his confidence that we’ll get something done soon. In follow-up, he allowed as to how “everybody” did not include either the Israelis or the Palestinians. A not insignificant exception, I’d say.
