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Gideon Rachman became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington and Bangkok. He also edited The Economist’s business and Asia sections. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation. - -
Why McCain’s big idea is a bad idea
If, as a newly elected US president, he calls a summit of the world’s democracies, it would be a peculiar party. Many guests might plead they are otherwise engaged – the diplomatic equivalent of ‘we cannot get a babysitter’, writes Gideon Rachman
Do not panic over foreign wealth
The trouble is that legitimate caution about sovereign wealth funds could easily spill over into illegitimate hysteria. Foreign investment is still a subject that is exploited by demagogues, from the US to France to India, writes Gideon Rachman
Lunch with the FT: Mikheil Saakashvili
President Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s president, tells Gideon Rachman he wants a cultural transformation in his country
A hit that no one can afford to miss
The reason so much of the world is fascinated by this election? It is quite important. Significant events are, of course, not necessarily fun to watch. Nobody would confuse the last congress of the Chinese Communist party with a spectator sport, writes Gideon Rachman
Power and Russia’s backyard
As an alliance of free countries, Nato should not allow Russia a veto on who joins the club. But the counter-arguments should not be airily dismissed – unstated spheres of influence do still exist in the modern world, writes Gideon Rachman
Capital Fellow
Boris Johnson, the Conservative candidate, is odds-on favourite to win London’s mayoral race. Victory would be a fantastic political comeback for a man often dismissed as a lightweight and a joker
The political threats to globalisation
Hunger – that most traditional threat to ruling elites – is returning to many countries that have embraced globalisation, writes Gideon Rachman. Along with other mounting pressures, it could come to undermine the free-trade consensus built up over the past 30 years
Olympic torch threatens to scorch China
China is not just an emerging great power. It is also an authoritarian and nationalistic one-party state. Those concerns might have been brushed under the red carpet, but the violence in Tibet ended any hope of an apolitical Games, writes Gideon Rachman
Spain, Italy and identity politics
The fact that Zapatero has now won re-election may force the conservatives to recognise the government’s legitimacy without further equivocation. That, in turn, could help drain some of the bitterness from Spanish politics, writes Gideon Rachman
Don’t mention the F word
As US liberals and conservatives call each other fascists, Gideon Rachman sees a different future for the right
