Appeared in The New Republic on October 27, 2011. Also appeared on NPR.org. 

With a summit of Europe’s top leaders winding down, it seems as if the continent is stumbling finally toward at least a temporary solution for containing the latest outbreak of financial contagion. But Europe’s economic storm is far from over. Policy wonks aren’t short on good ideas for how to contain the continent’s debt crisis, but politicians and bankers seem incapable of agreeing on any of them. Why has a final agreement proven so elusive? Here are the main players in negotiating (or stopping) a eurozone bailout—and the internal and external pressures that each participant faces.