The World Today

Time will tell if President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo on June 4 is remembered as a landmark in relations between America, the Middle East and Muslims around the world. One thing it should achieve in the short term is to reassure those who think he is opposed to democracy promotion.

Once presidential elections are out of the way in Iran, there may be a window of opportunity for a new policy to end the thirty-year standoff with the United States. Europe negotiated with Tehran for some two years until 2005, during the longest freeze in its nuclear activities. There are important lessons for Washington in any new initiative.

Next year, Burmese will vote in their first national elections for twenty years. The process is deeply flawed, but it will represent the most important political shift for a generation. The international community must seize this rare opportunity to induce the government to move towards greater openness and reform.

Preparing for the first visit by United States President Barack Obama, Moscow sees the global recession not only in economic terms, but also as a sign that the political and ideological predominance of the west is withering. Despite itself being severely affected by the meltdown, Russian leaders sense the right moment to launch ambitious new policy proposals on pan-European security and energy. While the Kremlin might be right in assuming that, stricken by crisis, Europe is open to new ideas, its schemes are not a real alternative. It is also unclear, whether Russia is prepared to play by the rules it so actively promotes.

Smaller states selling to the highest bidder; not a distant Cold War memory, rather a new reality in Central Asia. And for good measure, as he shakes hands on a new deal with Russia the president

On the verge of crucial mid-term elections, President Felipe Calderon’s struggling government is facing the fallout from the swine flu epidemic, unabated drug violence and the country’s third economic crisis in as many decades, the worst in the western hemisphere.