The World Today: February 2002: February 2002

Women facing War by Charlotte Lindsey Published by the ICRC October 2001

How should the fight against terrorism continue now attention is shifting from Afghanistan? Are stealthy smash and grab raids the best way of neutralising those behind terror groups? Or should the international community support state building to deny them the space to operate?

Two years in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin is having a good crisis. The strongly pro-western course he adopted after the events of September 11 has enhanced his standing in the west and won some significant benefits for his country. Yet it has left him politically exposed should he be unable to demonstrate the longer term advantages of closer cooperation.

The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela by Julia Buxton 2001 Published by Ashgate, 1252 pages, £42.50

In late December Robert Mugabe announced the start of his campaign to be re-elected as President of Zimbabwe. His country was embarking, he said, on the ‘third chimurenga’. All Zimbabweans know that the ‘first chimurenga’ was the uprising against the settlers in 1896. They know that the ‘second chimurenga’ was the liberation war of the 1970s. But many are now be puzzled. What exactly is the ‘third chimurenga’ and how can the continued tenure of their aged President possibly be seen as a liberating revolution?

The Kyoto Protocol on climate change was written off in the early part of last year, when President George Bush withdrew from what he called a ‘fatally flawed’ agreement. But now the Marrakesh Accords have breathed new life into it, forcing the US to think again. The world has agreed to act to stop the climate changing.