Erstellt am: 17. 11. 2011 - 14:48 Uhr

Why the US is looking East

Reality Check: US troops in Australia, Italy's new government, Schuldenbremse debate, cluster bombs, human trafficking

A great many of us are suffering from a delusion about east-west politics. Maybe it's something to do with the way the world is portrayed on most maps, and you can blame the British for that.

In 1851, Sir George Airey established the Greenwich (or Primary) Meridan which made Greenwich, London, the reference point for 0° longitude. Within 30 years, most of the world's shipping was using the Greenwich Meridian as the reference for their maps. In fact, there's nothing special about Greenwich - it could have been anywhere and a few countries have made a bid over the years to move 0° to other venues. The French, even obstinately insisted on using the Paris Meridian for several decades after everyone else was on Greenwich. However, it wouldn't have made much difference - that standard map of the world would still have had Western Europe in the middle, the USA on the left and Asia on the right.

So what's all this got to do with politics? Well, we tend to forget that if you go far enough east, you end up in the west, and vice versa. We think of Europe as the central point between East and West, and forget that they join up round the other side. We think of the USA as an "Atlantic" country, and forget that about half of its coastline is on the Pacific, and its political and strategic interests go in both directions.

This was something most of us had forgotten as our eyebrows shot up when President Obama said he is planning to set up a US military base in Australia. The US already has several Pacific bases and a long and complicated history in the region. According to James Boys, Director of International Relations at the American International University in London, Obama is not showing any real change of policy, he's just reminding the world, and particularly China, that the US is a Pacific, as well as an Atlantic force, and shifting the focus from the middle of the map to the bit that joins up round the other side.

ATTAC criticises Austria's planned debt cap

ATTAC is saying that the planned "Schuldenbremse" or debt limit is as much use as a law against bad weather. Alexandra Strickner fom ATTAC tells Joanna Bostock why the organisation is so critical of the proposals.

Italy's new government

Italy has a new government that will try to pull Italy out of its financial crisis, but there are no politicians involved.

As we've all been told, it's a government of technocrats - but what exactly is a technocrat, and why might they make a better job of it than the elected politicians? And what now for Silvio Berlsuconi? He is still the leader of his party, and it's a large and influential party, with the possibility to make things difficult for the technocrats if they choose to.

Our Rome correspondent, Josephine McKenna, explains how the new government will work, and the potential pitfalls it faces.

New cluster bomb treaty proposals

The US is proposing a new treaty on the use of cluster bombs that is outraging human rights groups and many signatories to the currenty treats. Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch explains what the new proposals are about.

Human trafficking in Nigeria

Nigerian women's rights activist, Grace Osakue, talks to Riem Higazi about her battle against the international sex trade and the Girls' Power Initiative ahead of her talk tonight at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna.

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to Friday from 12.00 to 14.00, and after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.