The World Today

February 2004: February 2004

The bombing of the United Nations mission in Baghdad that killed Special Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than twenty others on August 19 was the most deadly attack ever against the organisation. It was also a horrendous experience for me.

Articles

Successes like the capture of Saddam Hussein are morale boosters for security forces in Iraq and may help to ensure victory for President George Bush in his re-election bid.

As evidence of Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction and pre-war ties to terrorism remains elusive, Washington and London increasingly point to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s brutal government to justify the invasion.

The sudden departure of Georgian President Edvard Shevardnadze and his replacement by Mikheil Saakashvili in the January 4 election have produced speculation that a similar process of democratic transformation may take place elsewhere in the former Soviet region. There is concern too over the potential for growing strategic tension between the great powers, given Russia’s worries about loss of inﬂuence in the southern Caucasus and accelerating energy sector development there.

President and prime minister are at loggerheads and the peace process, so carefully nurtured by Norway, is at a crossroads. There are worries that Sri Lanka’s costly civil war could resume, but concern too that another Oslo-inspired agreement might be going badly wrong.

The presidential election in Taiwan planned for next month is proving to be anything other than a regular exercise of democracy. Current President Chen Shui-bian’s policies have angered Beijing and drawn a public reprimand from Washington.

As the presidential election approaches, verbal war across the Taiwan Strait increasingly dominates the headlines. But beneath the noise of battle, China and Taiwan are quietly conducting business as usual.

Also in this issue

The natural tragedy of the Bam earthquake could not have happened at a more signiﬁcant time for Iran – just 25 years into its revolution this month

For the ﬁrst time since UN inspectors were expelled from North Korea in 2002 a foreign team has visited the nuclear site – in this case a private group of American ofﬁcials and experts. But concern about the secretive Stalinist state goes beyond its possible nuclear capability. Pyongyang is accused of supplying weapons and missiles, or the means to make them, to other countries. Now there are suggestions that Pakistan – an acknowledged nuclear power – has been trading secrets with North Korea amongst others.