The World Today Climate Change: China's Changing Climate The Chinese government is pursuing a delicate balancing act ahead of the Copenhagen summit in December when the post-Kyoto climate change agreement is scheduled to be sealed. On the one hand, Chinese leaders are adamant that combating climate change must not deter economic development, while on the other, they want to bring to the post-2012 climate negotiations sufficient evidence to prove that China is indeed intent on curbing its greenhouse gas emissions.
The World Today Brazil and Climate Change: Global Positioning Fewer burning forests, more biofuels, new oil wells, Brazil could position itself for a key role in this year’s crucial climate change talks. A good move some would say – even if long delayed – for a country that played host to the Earth Summit seventeen years ago, which set off the whole environmental process.
The World Today Moldova: Question of Power To most of Europe, the Republic of Moldova has been a zone of unhappiness rather than interest. Since the election of communist President Vladimir Voronin in 2001, the dominance of governing clans has further corroded the country’s political and economic life, but not in a way to make Europe question the government’s democratic credentials. And so it was after the parliamentary elections of April 5, when the qualified endorsement of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was read without a murmur by almost everyone except the political opposition in Moldova itself. It worries about an authoritarian outcome and storm clouds on the international horizon.
The World Today Global Economc Crisis: Crunching Eastern Europe Three governments have fallen, the new middle classes are feeling the pain, there is even fear of the emergence of dark forces. Is Eastern Europe in for a torrid time as the economic crisis bites? Can the once magnetic attraction of the European Union counteract the other factors at work.
The World Today Europe's Eastern Partnership: Between Europe and Russia Moscow has tried to lure them back into its sphere of influence, now the European Union is to launch a partnership programme for six post-communist countries. The best result would be for them to become a bridge between the two. In any event, energy is the issue.
The World Today Council of Europe: Conscience of a Continent The Council of Europe has become the conscience of the continent. When the ten founding states signed the Treaty of London sixty years ago, each agreed to ‘accept the principles of the rule of law and the enjoyment by all persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms’. Since then the Council has developed into a pan- European organisation encompassing forty-seven states, all subscribing to the founders’ high ideals. But practice does not always live up to principle in an organisation that reflects deep continental rifts.
The World Today The Global Economic Crisis and Africa Hardly had the world got used to the idea of a modern-day rush for Africa by resource-hungry, newly- developing countries, when the global crisis called the process into question. So where does this leave growth on the continent?
The World Today Lebanon Elections: Into the Shadows Lebanon is about to elect its fourteenth parliament since independence sixty-six years ago. But practice is not making perfect as the country’s only militia, Hezbollah, has succeeded in undermining the political system and turning the state into an irrelevant and hollow institution.
