The financial and political crisis facing Europe can only be redressed with further eurozone integration that the continent's publics may not be ready for, says CFR's Charles A. Kupchan.

The U.S. financial sector is at risk of eurozone sovereign debt contagion that could potentially undermine the fragile U.S. economic recovery, explains economist Richard H. Clarida.

Greece's political turmoil is spreading fresh economic uncertainty. But it is wrong to assume an automatic exit from the euro or further sovereign debt contagion, says expert Iain Begg.

Though Standard and Poor's ranks Greece as the world's lowest-rated economy, calling into question the eurozone's future, economist Iain Begg says the debt crisis will paradoxically have the effect of deepening EU integration.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces dwindling support because of "dithering" on the euro crisis and Germans' opposition to having troops in Afghanistan, says Germany expert William Drozdiak.

Debt restructuring and longer-term eurozone reforms will be needed to contain Europe's sovereign debt problems and restore European stability and prosperity, says CFR's Marc Levinson.

President Obama's decision to skip an upcoming summit in Spain set off a European reaction that highlighted areas of conflicting interests between the EU and the U.S., says CFR Europe expert Charles Kupchan.

Moves toward the approval of the Lisbon Treaty could create a stronger European partner for Washington in global affairs, says CFR's Charles Kupchan. But he cites a competing trend toward stronger nation-states in Europe.

Robert E. Hunter, a former U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, says Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili miscalculated by sending troops into South Ossetia in mid-August, but in the end, "Russia is the loser here."

Charles A. Kupchan, CFR's top Europe expert, says President Bush's farewell trip to Europe produced statements of friendship and partnership hard to imagine a few short years ago.

William Drozdiak, president of the independent American Council on Germany, says the White House meeting last week between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Bush indicates “they seem to have struck up a much more friendly rapport than what Bush had with her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder."

Germany’s U.S. ambassador says his country will use new leadership positions in both the European Union and the G8 to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and issues such as energy security with Russia.

Steven A. Cook, CFR’s leading expert on Turkey, says the country is so preoccupied with issues of European Union membership, continuing problems over divided Cyprus, and the Kurdish issues that the pending visit of Pope Benedict XVI has not aroused much interest.

"Spain used to be the poster child for the benefits of the European project. It now risks becoming a symbol of everything that has gone wrong," writes Gideon Rachman.

Once fear reaches a critical mass, people will act, and then a bank run becomes a self-perpetuating process. There has been a lot of complacency about the eurozone crisis in the past eight months.

Reuters details the negotiations that led from ECB President Mario Draghi's late-July speech to his recent announcement that the ECB stood ready to buy "unlimited" amounts of bonds by the most troubled euro members.

Amartya Sen writes: "Europe has been extraordinarily important for the world, which has learned so much from it. It can remain globally important by setting its own house in order--economically, politically, and socially. The first step is to understand properly, with some clarity, the policy challenges that Europe faces today. A failure to do so will reverberate far beyond Europe's own borders."

This Wall Street Journal editorial argues that the permanent crisis-management fund will only make permanent crisis more likely.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive and co-chief investment officer of PIMCO, writes in the Financial Times that the package of emergency loans to Ireland will not significantly change the economic landscape of Europe.

For all the success of German reunification, it left behind fateful seeds that sprouted into the current eurozone crisis. To overcome the current downturn, Europe should finish the job started two decades ago and retrofit the European Union with stronger political institutions, writes Mary Elise Sarotte in Foreign Affairs.