European Institute

In the waning years of the last century there was great hope -- and hype -- about the “global market" brought about by new technologies.  In the early years of this new century, the darker side of the global market has become more evident as economic trouble anywhere becomes economic trouble everywhere: e.g., the failure of Lehman caused a global contagion.

Amid Intrigues in Wartime Lisbon, Portugal Shrewdly Protected Its Global Interests ------- Everyone is familiar with the classic World War II movie “Casablanca,” a North African cockpit of intrigue and romance, of spies and profiteers – and of refugees scrambling desperately for visas and transport to escape the advancing grasp of Nazi power. In the film, Casablanca is immortalized as scene of the last flight to Lisbon, jumping-off point to the U.S. or South America.

             (See comment on this subject by IATA official at end of story.)

It is called “going postal” in American slang when a dispute, usually in the workplace, becomes extremely and uncontrollably angry. That is exactly what has happened in the long-simmering dispute between the EU and the U.S. (and most other global players) about European intentions to levy emission-charges on all flights in or out of EU airports.

The “bad guy” singled out as the most dangerous breed of hacker has changed over the years from the happy hacker, to the malicious hacker, to the serious cyber-criminals.  Now a different villain in the hacking world has emerged at the top of the threat list in Washington and European capitals -- nation-states that are equipping themselves for aggressive cyber-war and industrial espionage and theft of intellectual property.