And that worthy ambition became his lodestar.

That inspiration remains the foundation and lodestar of the European Union in world affairs and in its actions and policies.

Particularly important is the growing discontent of economics students with the university curriculum. Undergraduates discontent matters, because economics has long been the West s political lodestar.

No doubt this mood will pass when growth revives, as it is bound to. Nevertheless, a deeper shift in attitude toward growth has occurred, which is likely to make it a less important lodestar in the future especially in rich countries.

Berkeley While the new Obama administration is commanding global attention, America s future may be written as so many times before in and by its largest state. Once the lodestar for American optimism and achievement, California now illustrates the difficulties confronting the United States and how much more can still go wrong domestically.

MAYNOOTH, IRELAND Despite its many woes, the European Union remains a lodestar for poorer states outside its borders. Indeed, the gravitational pull of the EU s enlargement process has been the most important factor in the reconstitution of economic, political, and civic life in the western Balkans since the end of the post Yugoslav wars of the 1990 s.

Yesterday China was an anti capitalist lodestar for utopian revolutionaries today it has become an ultra liberal nemesis for a new generation of utopian reactionaries the defenders of the status quo in Europe. The student demonstrators in the streets of Paris recently don t want to become like Chinese and Indians they reject the logic of globalization and refuse to surrender hard won social guarantees.

Nonetheless, the symbols and memories from the longue durée that Baghdadi uses such as the black flag of the Abbasids and the glorious stories of a time when the caliphate constituted a great power and a lodestar for all Sunnis have an enduring impact. Of course, these ideas would amount to little were they not backed by modern weaponry, and had the countries whose territory the Islamic State is seizing not failed to create inclusive social contracts.