AUTUMN PASTRYFULL MOON ADDSTO THE APPEALPAGE 19 | LIVING

rope this summer was considered a 400-year event; in China, over 20 inches ofrain fell in just two days; New York Cityset records for an hour’s rainfall, settingoff flash floods that killed dozens of peo-ple in the region; the drought-strickenAmerican West is ablaze.

Yet no one died in the Netherlands inthe July flooding. Some tributaries didwreak extensive damage in the borderregion, but along the Maas River, whichswelled to epic proportions, large urbancenters stayed safe and dry.

The Dutch are experienced in watermanagement, having dealt with sea-lev-el rise and river floods long before cli-mate change became a concern. Morethan half the country lies beneath sealevel, and while the ocean is held backby more conventional flood control

The Netherlands, accustomed to wetweather, was midway through whatwould become one of the wettest Julyson record, and Patrick van der Broeckwas getting edgy.

Germany and Belgium were experi-encing epochal floods that would ulti-mately kill 220 people, and the surgingwaters were bearing down on the low-lying Netherlands. “All the rain that fallsacross the border, inevitably will makeits way to us,” said Mr. van der Broeck,

the senior hydrologist for LimburgProvince.

Earlier that month, though, Dutch of-ficials had celebrated the completion ofa new flood control project, one thatturned previous such efforts on theirhead. Instead of further damming theMaas River and its tributaries, as con-ventional flood control would do, they’ddecided to work with nature — divertingthe waters into a 1,300-acre flood plaincreated to duplicate the river’s old over-flow channels.

“I was nervous,” Mr. van der Broecksaid. “I wondered whether our projectwould hold up.”

He had reason to be. Extremeweather events are becoming increas-ingly common, in Europe and world-wide. The deadly torrential rain in Eu-

methods, river management haschanged drastically.

Mr. van der Broeck’s project, Maas-park Ooijen-Wanssum, a nature pre-serve near the small city of Wanssum,lies at the heart of the new approach.During the flooding it did exactly what itwas supposed to, absorbing so muchwater that levels in parts of the MaasRiver dropped by 13 inches, or 33 centi-meters, enough to avert a major disas-ter.

“If we hadn’t freed up the areas to re-route the excess water from the MaasRiver, Venlo and Roermond would havebeen flooded,” Mr. van der Broeck saidof two regional cities. “For a long timewe have worked against nature,” hesaid. “The river is telling us it needs NETHERLANDS, PAGE 5

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ILVY NJIOKIKTJIEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Netherlands has faced flooding long before climate change became a worry. Clockwise from top: farmland; the Amsterdam waterfront; and boats passing through locks.

By creating flood plainsand indulging rivers, theyhave sidestepped disaster

BY THOMAS ERDBRINK

The Dutch go with the flow

..

INTERNATIONAL EDITION | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

FEAR OF TALIBANAFGHAN WOMENLOSE SAFE SPACESPAGE 4 | WORLD

MAHLER FILLS THE AIRMETROPOLITAN OPERAUNITES IN OUTDOOR EVENTPAGE 18 | CULTURE

“This is surreal,” Monica Lewinsky keptsaying.

She was trying to make her way to herseat in a crowded room where everyonewanted her attention. It was a hot sum-mer night in New York, in a blip of a pan-demic reprieve before the Delta varianthit, and the city’s vaccinated elite werepractically vibrating with energy. No-body had been to a party like this in along time.

The occasion was a July screeningand reception to promote FX’s “Im-peachment,” the latest installment ofRyan Murphy’s “American CrimeStory” anthology series, which revisits

the events leading up to the impeach-ment of President Bill Clinton throughthe perspectives of the women involved.Lewinsky is a big part of that story, ofcourse. So are Linda Tripp, the friendwho exposed her affair with the presi-dent; Paula Jones, who had accused himof sexual harassment; and, to a lesserextent, Hillary Clinton. But Lewinsky isthe only one who is a producer on theshow.

Lewinsky, 48, had skipped the screen-ing portion of the evening — no need torewatch the most humiliating period ofher life with a roomful of strangers, shejoked — and had a video session withher therapist. But she agreed to attendthe reception afterward. It took place inthe old Four Seasons restaurant — oncea nexus of Manhattan’s famous andpowerful, some of whom had returned totheir old haunt for the event.

There was Tina Brown, the celebratedLEWINSKY, PAGE 2

If it must be told, she wants to tell it

Monica Lewinsky is a producer on “Impeachment,” a series that revisitsevents leading up to the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

RYAN PFLUGER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Monica Lewinsky revisits her affair with Bill Clinton with herself as producer

BY JESSICA BENNETT

The New York Times publishes opinionfrom a wide range of perspectives inhopes of promoting constructive debateabout consequential questions.

Price gains are shooting higher acrossmany advanced economies as con-sumer demand, shortages and otherpandemic-related factors combine tofuel a burst of inflation.

The spike has become a source of an-noyance among consumers and worryamong policymakers who are con-cerned that rapid price gains might last.It is one of the main factors centralbankers are looking at as they decidewhen — and how quickly — to returnmonetary policy to normal.

Most policymakers believe that to-day’s rapid inflation will fade. That ex-pectation may be reinforced by the factthat many economies are experiencinga price pop in tandem, even though theyused vastly different policies to cushionthe blow of pandemic lockdowns.

The shared inflation experience un-derscores that mismatches betweenwhat consumers want to buy and whatcompanies are able to deliver are help-ing to drive the price increases. Whilethose may be amplified by worldwidestimulus spending, they are not the sim-ple result of nation-specific policychoices — and they should eventuallywork themselves out.

“There is a lot of stimulus in the sys-tem, and it is pushing up demand andthat’s driving higher inflation,” saidKristin Forbes, a Massachusetts Insti-tute of Technology economist and for-mer external member of the British cen-tral bank’s Monetary Policy Committee.

“Some of these big global moves dotend to pass through and prove tempo-rary,” Ms. Forbes said. “The big ques-tion is: How long will these supply chainpressures last?”

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s preferredprice index rose 4.2 percent in July froma year earlier, more than double the cen-tral bank’s 2 percent target, which itseeks to hit on average over time. In theeurozone, inflation recently acceleratedto the highest level in about a decade. InBritain, Canada, New Zealand, SouthKorea and Australia, price gains havejumped well above the level centralbanks set as their goals.

The big increases have come as sup-ply chains have snarled around theworld, adding to transportation costsand throwing the delicate balance of cor-porate globalization badly out of whack.Prices for airline tickets and hotel roomsdipped last year in the depths of the pan-demic, and now they’re bouncing backto normal levels, making the numberslook higher than they would if comparedwith a less depressed base. Neither is-sue should last indefinitely.

There is a danger that the global pricesurge could last longer — and becomemore country-specific — if workers in INFLATION, PAGE 9

Price surgeworldwide may not bea bad signRapid inflation is seenfading, and a moderaterise may aid recoveries

BY JEANNA SMIALEK

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistanafter a failed 20-year nation-buildingexercise has left many Americans andanalysts saying, “If only we knew backthen what we know now, we wouldhave never gone down that path.” I amnot sure that’s true, but it neverthelessraises this question: What are wedoing today in foreign policy that wemight look back 20 years from now andsay, “If only we knew back then whatwe know now, we would never havegone down that path”?

My answer can be summed up inone word: China.

And my fears can be summed up injust a few paragraphs: The 40 yearsfrom 1979 to 2019 were an epoch in

U.S.-China relations.There were manyups and downs, butall in all it was anepoch of steadyeconomic integrationbetween the twocountries.

The depth of thatU.S.-China integra-tion helped to fuel amuch deeper global-

ization of the world economy andbuttress four decades of relative peacebetween the world’s two great powers.And always remember, it’s great-powerconflicts that give us enormouslydestabilizing world wars.

That era of U.S.-China globalizationleft some U.S. manufacturing workersunemployed while opening huge newexport markets for others. It lifted outof poverty hundreds of millions ofpeople in China, India and East Asiawhile making many products muchmore affordable to more Americanconsumers.

In short, the relative peace andprosperity that the world experiencedin those 40 years cannot be explainedwithout reference to the U.S.-Chinabonding.

For the past five years, though, theUnited States and China have beenstumbling down a path of de-integra-tion and maybe toward outright con-frontation. In my view, it is China’sincreasingly bullying leadership styleat home and abroad, its heads-we-win-tails-you-lose trade policies and thechanging makeup of its economy thatare largely responsible for this rever-

What comes after the war on terrorism?

OPINION

Washingtonand Beijinghave beenstumblingdown a pathof de-inte-gration.

FRIEDMAN, PAGE 14

Thomas L. Friedman

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