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Jonathan Fenby
For Jonathan Fenby's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2010
A year to recall what made de Gaulle great
LONDON — By coincidence, this is a busy year for round-number anniversaries for France's greatest leader since Napoleon. Charles de Gaulle was born 120 years ago in Lille. He died 40 years ago at his home in Colombey-les-deux-eglises, expiring of a heart attack as he played solitaire one evening. Seventy years ago, he delivered his celebrated call to resistance over the BBC after flying to London from France as it collapsed in June 1940.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2004
Fistful of troubles for Chirac
PARIS — Ever since French President Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain's entry into the European Common Market and took his country out of the integrated military structure of the NATO alliance, France has had a reputation as a country that knows how to say "no" — a reputation greatly bolstered by President Jacques Chirac's opposition to the war in Iraq.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2004
EU leaders face voters' wrath
LONDON -- George Orwell once called soccer a substitute for war. Looking at the recently finished European Championship held in Lisbon, one might well call it a political metaphor. What happened on the pitch during the monthlong tournament was an uncanny reflection of what is happening on a wider and deeper scale across the Continent. The lessons to be drawn from the sporting results have some definite applications to the search for Europe's future.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2004
Tony Blair loses his touch
LONDON -- When he led the reformed British Labour Party to two overwhelming general election victories in 1997 and 2001, Tony Blair epitomized a new political generation that would sweep away both the cobwebs of traditional socialist policy and the increasingly incoherent, sleaze-tainted performance of the Conservatives who had held power for almost two decades.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2004
Bombs and the ballot box
LONDON -- The defeat of the government in Spain that backed the war in Iraq is being widely seen in Europe as one of the most crucial events since the 9/11 attacks in New York set off the current war on terror. But the result of the election on March 14, which followed the bombings in Madrid that killed 200 people, is being interpreted in very different ways that reflect the continuing split in Europe about the war and attitudes toward the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2004
Troubles cast a shadow on EU future
LONDON -- Europe's currency has never been stronger. The European Union has been portrayed as a "post modern" association of states that have moved beyond the use of force to a more rational organization of their relations. Though still hobbled by inflexibilities, its economies are forecast to show stronger growth this year than last.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2003
Winds of pragmatism blow in Beijing
LONDON -- Like many religions, communism does not admit that it -- or those that represent it at the head of governments -- can make mistakes. Historical inevitability means that the party must be correct. To acknowledge anything else would be to undermine the basic certainties upon which Marxism rests.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2003
Japan's lesson for Europe
LONDON -- At some point last year, it became fashionable to compare the economic plight of Germany and, by extension, the euro zone as a whole with the situation in Japan. As recession bit into the country that used to be Europe's motor and as the 12-nation euro area began recording declining growth rates, commentators pointed to the stagnation gripping the world's second-biggest economy on the other side of the globe as a model of what could happen when policymakers fail to bite the bullet and the air goes out of a bubble.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2003
Discontent runs deep in Hong Kong
LONDON -- The way in which the administration in Hong Kong was forced to pull back from its proposed antisubversion legislation has rightly been hailed as a rare example of popular feeling making its impact on the unelected government of the former British colony. But it raises more fundamental questions about how the special administrative region is going to evolve six years after its change of sovereignty.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2003
U.S.-EU axis of divergence
LONDON -- When the war in Iraq ended, politicians, diplomats and commentators in Europe stressed the need to repair the rift that had grown up between the United States and countries led by France and Germany, which had opposed the invasion. There was a general anticipation that relations would revert to their prewar condition with a number of disagreements continuing on specific policy areas but with an overall attempt to work together as far as possible.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2003
Blair may be down but he's far from out
LONDON -- Since the European community of nations began to take shape 52 years ago, Britain has taken an ambivalent view of the Continent's moves toward greater unity. It did not join the coal and steel community that began the process in 1951, and, six years later, did not sign the Treaty of Rome that launched the Common Market. Now the government in London has once again taken a rain check as it announced on June 9 that it would delay a decision on whether to join the 12-nation euro zone.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2003
The ebb and flow of the Group summit
LONDON — When then-French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing organized the first meeting of world leaders in the form of the Group of Seven in 1975, the idea was that they would conduct a relaxed private dialogue about settling major problems facing the world, with the emphasis on joint economic programs.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2003
Euro's supporters face uphill battle in Britain
LONDON -- If a strong economy and a strong currency are meant to go hand in hand, the 12-nation euro zone is disproving conventional wisdom, and posing stiff challenges for policymakers with implications for the wider world economy.
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2003
Careworn Blair turns 50
LONDON -- As British Prime Minister Tony Blair passes his 50th birthday, the almost boyish bounce that characterized him in the years when he got to the top of the Labour Party, reformed it and then won two crushing general election victories has been replaced by a more careworn appearance. This may seem surprising given the convincing military victory that British forces scored in Iraq as junior partner to the Americans. The days of early spring -- when Blair appeared to risk a defeat in Parliament that, he has subsequently stated, would have led him to resign -- seem far away.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2003
A shorter leash on China's Communists
LONDON -- Governments and political parties habitually find it hard to admit to having made mistakes. Ministers and party officials who resign after getting things wrong cover their tracks with talk of seeking new horizons or spending more time with their families. The more authoritarian a regime, the less likely it is to admit to error -- as if doing so would undermine its claim to rule.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2003
EU troubles will also expand
LONDON -- The symbolism could hardly have been better. Against a background of the columns of ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy, 25 government leaders signed documents that will bring into the European Union countries that spent much of their postwar existence under communist dictatorship.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2003
U.S. confidence not enough
LONDON -- America's notion of its national sense of "manifest destiny" has been a mainstay of its internal expansion and then its involvement with the world in the past century. This has frequently been of enormous benefit to the rest of the globe. But it can lead the most powerful nation on Earth into undertakings that would be best tempered with a less visionary approach.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2003
Age of shifting coalitions
LONDON -- Despite the failure to gain backing from the United Nations, the war on Iraq has brought together a growing "coalition of the willing," as Washington dubs those who support the attack on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It may have few active military members -- the United States, Britain plus smaller contingents from Australia and Poland. But it has gained in diplomatic numbers as Washington showed its power with its air attack on Baghdad, the impact of which was heightened by being broadcast live on television around the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2003
Post-1945 order may have run its course
LONDON -- It is unlikely that the split over whether to go to war with Iraq will do Iraqi President Saddam Hussein much good, as U.S. President George W. Bush appears intent on unleashing hostilities however widespread the opposition to conflict. But it will certainly do the new world order which was supposed to have emerged after the first Persian Gulf War a great deal of damage, potentially terminal.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2003
Shifting fortunes for France's 'bulldozer'
LONDON -- A year ago, he was dropping in the polls as he faced a tough re-election fight. Allegations of political and financial scandal surrounded him. His rival for the presidency accused him of being old and tired. Five years of having ruled with a government of the opposing party had marginalized him.

Longform

High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?