The World Today

Since George Bush’s re-election last November, tensions have been steadily increasing between Iran and the United States, as policy makers contemplate the next stage in the ‘war’ on terror

Shared embassies; secure buildings to deal with the threat of terror; direct international contact between government departments leaving diplomats on the sidelines, what is the diplomatic world coming to? Are ambassadors and the glitter of grand receptions threatened by global change?

The world’s most important energy and environment treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, has finally become effective. This happened because negotiations linked several trade and environment issues in an imaginative deal. Are such matters joining the mainstream alongside security issues, and if so, could the environment lose out?

African development is a key theme for Britain’s presidencies of the G-8 group of industrialised countries and the European Union. As part of this, Prime Minister Tony Blair launched the Commission for Africa draw up an agenda for action. After a year’s work the commission will publish its final report this month, probably simultaneously in New York, Addis Ababa and London. The project has drawn criticism as accident prone and long on rhetoric, can it deliver?

The decision by the King of Nepal to assume executive power presents his people with a choice between two forms of government in decline in much of the world – Maoism or absolute monarchy. But the king has taken a massive gamble by involving the monarchy in the political process at a time when the threat from Maoist rebels is at its greatest. If he fails to bring peace, and few would bet that he will, the end will be nigh for the monarchy.

Images of long lines of Afghan women patiently waiting to cast their votes in last October’s presidential election, and the candidacy of a female doctor for president, seem vividly to symbolise the progress of women since the fall of the Taliban just over three years ago. The images of hope are not wholly misleading.