The World Today

The defeat of Lionel Jospin by Jean-Marie Le Pen has given France a cold shower. Above all it is a massive wake-up call for the remote and complacent political class. For the former Jospin government and the entire political spectrum this is not easy. Real reform is the only answer and politicians don’t want to be responsible for the pain.

A political murder, a cabinet resigning over the 1995 mass murder in Srebrenica a month before the general election, the unprecedented success of a new right-wing group: the Dutch elections were both sensational and dramatic. Negotiations for a right-wing government are underway.

This double compact disc set of recordings of British army soldiers and officers recounting their experiences in Gorazde makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the awful events that unfolded in Bosnia in the summer of 1995.

The rise of militant Islam in Southeast Asia, and its challenge to the once fashionable Asian way of development and shared values, has been largely ignored.

Indonesia found itself in a particularly vulnerable position after last year’s Al Qaeda attacks. The world’s largest Muslim country, some have accused it of harbouring terrorist sympathisers. With several separatist movements and a military suspected of human rights abuses, it has had to tread a narrow line. Typically for a non-aligned nation, it has chosen to go it alone.

This month’s G8 summit of industrialised nations in Canada will be dominated by discussion of the much heralded New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the latest attempt to meet the formidable challenges facing the continent. A new infusion of aid is tied to good government. Is it a realistic project or yet another grandiose initiative that will entirely fail to transform political and economic conditions on the ground? While recent events in Zimbabwe and the broader African reaction to them may not prove fatal for the scheme, they do not bode well for its long term success.