30 Sep 09 -
LAST week's summits in New York and Pittsburgh have shown once more that China is pivotal to the biggest foreign policy challenges we face. If we hope to stabilise the global economy, address climate change, support development in the...
30 Sep 09 -
CHINA'S distaste for sanctions and appetite for Iran's oil may hamper Western efforts to ramp up pressure on Tehran after disclosure of the country's second uranium enrichment plant. The United States and Western European powers want...
30 Sep 09 -
BRAZIL'S claim to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council could be strengthened if its decision to provide protection for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in its embassy turns out well, or it could see complications...
29 Sep 09 -
THE Arab world is gradually awakening to the massive environmental challenges ahead for the region. In recent years, many developing countries, faced with massive environmental degradation and poor air and water quality, have reached a...
29 Sep 09 -
PLURALISM has been a topic of great interest for a long time — but it just got more interesting. Look at the last few months: the birth of the "English Defence League" (and its offshoot, the "Scottish Defence...
29 Sep 09 -
IT WAS extraordinarily questionable why US President Barack Obama chose not to credit the War on Afghanistan with a separate paragraph in his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations on September 23, to "note" the war...
28 Sep 09 -
EUROPE, which hopes to be a model for the world at UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December, is currently squabbling internally over who cuts what and who pays for it. On paper the EU nations' commitment is good; agreeing last December...
28 Sep 09 -
WORLD events have taken an interesting turn recently, with the Goldstone report, which wreaked havoc in the beginning of the week being nearly completely overshadowed by Iran's revelation of another nuclear facility, according to diplomats...
28 Sep 09 -
RUSSIA, which has the deepest relations with Iran of any big power, is to play a critical role in the Iranian nuclear crisis in the next months as the clock ticks on efforts to find a diplomatic solution. Moscow is a key supplier of...
27 Sep 09 -
BEING named heir apparent in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was often a curse. For most of the past 60 years of its rule, many of the party's "crown princes" ended their days as political pariahs — or worse still, dead....
