Event of the year

This year saw the fall of the Czech government and the elevation of Václav Klaus to bad boy of Europe, but the event of the year was the April visit of Barack Obama. We referred to it then as part of the farewell tour of the last American president, because of Obama's readiness to give up the U.S.'s dominant role in global affairs. Later visits by Obama to Moscow, Beijing, Oslo and Copenhagen confirmed this view. In Prague, Obama made no mention of China in declaring a commitment to a nuclear-free world. By Copenhagen, it was China that was leading the developing world and dictating terms to the West. As Jefim Fištejn noted in Euro, a nuclear-arms treaty without China now seems rather irrelevant. Obama's April visit is a useful reference point for the march toward a New World Order. Although little has changed in Czech politics since then, the changes globally have been enormous.