This post was written by James Joyner and originally published on the New Atlanticist Policy and Analysis Blog. The United States has among the lowest top income tax rates in the developed world. And also the highest rates of compliance in paying taxes. One suspects these facts are related. Atlantic business editor Megan McArdle observes, [...]

No? That could be a problem. Yesterday, Richard Holmes wrote this in his tribute to Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, 1st Battalion Welsh Guards commanding officer who was killed in Afghanistan on July 1: We have been so preoccupied with other issues that it is easy to forget that our commitment to Afghanistan has rumbled on [...]

The European Union’s top health official today urged Europeans to postpone any nonessential travel to the U.S. and Mexico.   With more than 1,600 cases and 103 deaths in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, and with confirmed cases in the U.S. doubling to 40, the World Health Organization worries of pandemic potential while economists [...]

In a truly bizarre display, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who holds the rotating EU presidency, yesterday compared the institution to the Soviet Union. Constant Brand for AP: Klaus is known for deep skepticism of the EU and has refused to fly the EU flag over his official seat in Prague during the Czech presidency, saying [...]

General John Craddock, head of NATO forces, announced Sunday that attacks on drug lords and labs in Afghanistan will begin within the “next several days.” Lolita Baldor reports for AP: NATO defense ministers, during a meeting last fall in Hungary, authorized troops in Afghanistan to launch the drug attacks, but there had been questions about [...]

In an International Herald Tribune column asking “Is Europe’s welfare system a model for the 21st century?” Katrin Bennhold contends that, as the world’s economic elite gather in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum, there is decidedly less Europe-bashing than in years past. After the global financial shake-out of the past  year, she wonders, [...]

Russia has “suspended” plans to deploy Iskander missiles in its European enclave of Kaliningrad.  Unveiled inNovember, the plans were intended to be a response to the U.S. missile defense installations scheduled to be built in the Czech Republic and Poland.  A Russian military official said the announcement is related to indications from the U.S. that [...]

Last week, President Obama signed an order that would close the controversial prison facility at Guantanamo within a year. Now, EU leaders are meeting to formally consider their previous offer to help. European Union foreign ministers are forging a plan for taking in dozens of Guantanamo Bay inmates who will have no safe home upon [...]

As (somewhat) anticipated, Russia reduced the flow of gas to Ukraine on New Year’s Day because of ongoing disputes over prices for 2009 and unpaid bills. However, unlike the briefer affair in 2006, this spat has evolved into a full-scale crisis with news today that Russia has cut off gas to Europe entirely (see my [...]

Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, told an Atlantic Council audience earlier today that the global financial crisis has  “re-emphasized the centrality of the U.S. dollar as a currency” and demonstrated once again that “when things go really badly lots of people want go to the U.S. even if U.S. is [...]