The World Today

There is already plenty of law bearing down on the activities of terrorists and their supporters.

The disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank highlights some of Israel’s social, democratic and military strengths and weaknesses. With the settlers gone, bulldozers reducing their former homes to rubble, and the Israeli army out of Gaza for good, the question remains whether the pull-out was an isolated episode or a first step in the long march to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

When Pakistan and Israel, self-proclaimed champions of two mutually hostile world religions, publicly announced their ‘engagement’ in Istanbul early last month, many rushed to judge it as historic. Yet for most seasoned Pakistan- watchers, aware that informal contacts had been in train since the late 1980s, it came as no surprise. For them the more pertinent question is: why now?

Turkey has long wanted to join the European Union, last year it was finally told talks could start this month. In the meantime, the political climate has cooled with the rejection by France and the Netherlands of the European draft constitution and the rise of politicians sceptical about Turkey’s case. Now a new idea is on the table and it is well short of Ankara’s aspirations.

Among the casualties of Hurricane Katrina – and floods in Europe – was one of the core assumptions of climate change sceptics: that rich industrialised countries would not be vulnerable to extreme weather. It is too early to know the exact repercussions, but nestled within a set of key political events, the map of climate change politics seems likely to emerge fundamentally recast.

The ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the Chinese National Oil Company to buy Unocal of California was remarkable not only because the bidder was Chinese, but also because it was a national oil company not an international giant. The national oil companies are really exploring for deals, access to resources and markets too.