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.

Theresa May discusses UK counterterrorism policy, as well as security cooperation with the United States and other international actors.

Theresa May discusses UK counterterrorism policy, as well as security cooperation with the United States and other international actors.

Sharp new fears of an escalation in eurozone debt troubles have intensified debate over whether to spur fiscal integration or risk a wider crisis with serious consequences for U.S. financial markets, experts say.

The Atlantic Charter was a statement drafted by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Atlantic Conference in August 1941. It was issued on August 14, 1941. The statement set out goals for the Allies in World War II and was agreed to by the Allies in January 1942.

CFR's Director of Studies James Lindsay and Director of the International Institutions and CFR.org Editor Robert McMahon preview major world events in the week ahead.

In this week's podcast: Iowa Republicans cast their ballots in the Ames Straw poll; Vice President Joe Biden visits Asia; The trial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resumes in Cairo; Germany marks the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Britain's phone-hacking scandal is raising questions about the power and reach of Rupert Murdoch's media empire. For Columbia University's Nicholas Lemann, the episode proves the value of expanding public media.

Western Europe's burgeoning Islamic population continues to spark concerns about Muslim assimilation and a cultural divide.

Eurozone leaders meeting for tomorrow's summit are unnecessarily worried about contagion to Italy, but a growing sovereign debt crisis highlights the role of politics in the markets and the need to find common, EU-wide solutions, says expert Franco Pavoncello.