Political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos are focused on the ongoing eurozone sovereign debt crisis, with some cautioning that Germany is not doing enough to resolve the crisis and facilitate growth.

The ECB and EFSF could do what the ECB alone cannot, writes George Soros.

Intelligent observers of Europe in the 1930s thought its future belonged to communism or fascism and would have ridiculed the notion that decades later the entire continent would be democratic.

Italy's budget may matter more than ineffectual Franco-German summitry, but the new agreement between France and Germany on reforming EU rules remains a reckless distraction, says CFR's Sebastian Mallaby.

Elliott Abrams discusses the recent attacks on the British Embassy in Iran and says the United States and its allies must to use this opportunity get behind President Sarkozy's proposal to sanction Iran's central bank and stop its oil exports.

Sebastian Mallaby explains why Germany should pay more to keep the eurozone intact.

Michael Spence says Italy can be saved only if both it and the European Union commit boldly and unconditionally to aggressive action on stabilization and reform.

New Prime Minister Mario Monti faces the daunting task of reining in Italy's high public debt. Analysts say he will have to tackle fiscal irresponsibility to rebuild market confidence and prevent the eurozone's third largest economy from defaulting.

Despite a pledge by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign, Italy faces pressure to address its sovereign debt burden by quickly implementing austerity measures or risk a new magnitude of eurozone contagion.

Jonathan Steinberg, professor of modern European History at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania, discusses his book, Bismark: A Life.

This meeting is part of a series hosted with the National History Center featuring prominent historians who will examine the events and times that shaped foreign policy as we know it today.

Jonathan Steinberg, professor of Modern European History at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania, discusses his book, Bismark: A Life.

This meeting is part of a series hosted with the National History Center featuring prominent historians who will examine the events and times that shaped foreign policy as we know it today.

G20 finance ministers are pressing their EU counterparts to provide a comprehensive plan for stabilizing the eurozone and easing fears of contagion. They have signaled that, for now, the onus is on Europe to fix its debt problems.

China is hardly the first great power to make authoritarian development look attractive. As Jonathan Steinberg's new biography of Bismarck shows, Wilhelmine Germany did it with ease.

Sebastian Mallaby, Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, says Greece is nearing a turning point in its debt crisis. Mallaby predicts that "Greece is going to have to default, it's going to have to be restructured in its debt," and argues that policy-makers need to "prevent the fire from spreading out of Greece and causing trouble all across the eurozone."

John Locke published the second of his two treatises in 1690. It dealt with his political philsophy on civil society and includes chapters on the state of nature, the state of war, slavery, property, and government and legislative and other powers.

The Peace of Westphalia is a collection of peace treaties that ended the Thirty Years’ War and Eighty Years’ War in 1648. Among the treaties’ provisions were countries’ sovereignty over their territories, territorial changes, and religious tolerance.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was passed by the French National Assembly on August 26, 1789. The declaration expressed the ideas of the French Revolution and was incorporated into France's Constitution in 1791.

The Magna Carta is an English charter dating to 1215. The National Archives calls the Magna Carta a “charter of ancient liberties guaranteed by a king to his subjects” and gives this history of the document:

“King John of England agreed, in 1215, to the demands of his barons and authorized that handwritten copies of Magna Carta be prepared on parchment, affixed with his seal, and publicly read throughout the realm. Thus he bound not only himself but his "heirs, for ever" to grant "to all freemen of our kingdom" the rights and liberties the great charter described. With Magna Carta, King John placed himself and England's future sovereigns and magistrates within the rule of law.”

Bleak assessments by the IMF and the Fed this week underlined a worsening European sovereign debt crisis and stagnant U.S. economic growth, putting renewed pressure on global financial markets and intensifying policy debate.

Following the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 and the six-year anniversary of the London subway bombings, Theresa May discusses counterterrorism strategy in the United Kingdom. The meeting focused on the nature of the threat, its evolution, the impact of events like the Arab Spring, and the United Kingdom's response, particularly as it prepares for the 2012 Olympics.