The World Today

By the beginning of September, Iraq appeared on the verge of imploding. Coalition soldiers were being cherry-picked on a daily basis, critical infrastructure destroyed, and large car bombs killed hundreds at the UN compound, the Jordanian Embassy and a mosque in Najaf. The loss of life in all these attacks has been devastating, with some of the best and brightest Iraqis, international civil servants and soldiers murdered. President George Bush is keen for help to defeat those he calls the ‘enemies of freedom’. But who should help – the United Nations or even NATO?

The United Nations had been in search of a role. The United States and to a lesser extent Britain believed that it had established what that role should be. And all the while a majority of UN member states appeared dismayed at the organisation’s seeming acquiescence to US imperial tendencies and apparent indifference to the niceties of multilateralism. This was the situation presented by events leading up to the April occupation of Iraq, and which the deaths of sixteen UN staff members in Baghdad this August may now play some role in altering.

International donors meet this month to decide how they might help reconstruct Iraq. Business is already debating the complexity of companies playing a part. To succeed, firms need legitimacy, which can be earned by proving to local partners that they have inclusive, transparent and accountable policies. In Iraq the wrong approach – perhaps even association with the interim administration – could wreck reputations and prospects.

A year on from the Bali nightclub bombing in which more than two hundred people died, there is still a reluctance to accept the extent of extremists’ reach in Southeast Asia.

Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad – Asia’s longest serving premier – is about to step down after more than two decades at the helm. His tenure at the head of the National Front coalition government has seen it transformed from a sleepy Asian backwater into an economic dynamo to rival neighbouring Singapore. But it has also witnessed the continuing erosion of democratic freedoms and the emergence of unprecedented levels of corruption. For many in the west, Mahathir is an enigmatic figure, but predicting the future without him may be yet more difficult.

Africa is becoming less safe for dictators and warlords. Facing growing pressure to step aside, Charles Taylor, the warlord- cum-President of Liberia, finally left Monrovia for exile on August 11. Besieged by rebels, indicted by Sierra Leone’s Special Court for war crimes against humanity, and publicly told to go three times by US President George Bush, Taylor was finally escorted into exile by the presidents of South Africa, Mozambique and Ghana following a ceremonial handover of power. But exile may no longer offer comfortable retirement for the continent’s tyrants.