Кому и почему вдруг срочно потребовалось сменить формат миротворческой операции, заменить российских миротворцев на «голубые каски» ООН, «совместный контингент» ГУАМ или даже «полицейские силы» НАТО.
President Mahmoud Abbas’s withdrawal from the Palestinian Authority's presidential election scheduled for January 24, 2010, has produced no political scramble to pick a successor. The reason is simple: the PA presidency has become irrelevant.
The Cold War was won as a result of military "containment" of Soviet expansion, the Soviet bloc's own internal weaknesses, and efforts to provoke a crisis of confidence among communist leaders. The same combination of factors should be considered when confronting regimes like those in Iran and North Korea.
In early June 1989, Václav Havel was released from jail, full of what now seems an almost prophetic certainty. Four months later, Havel's sense of Czechoslovak communism's imminent demise was proved correct.
China is making a big push to encourage greater international use of its currency, the renminbi, and is implicitly targeting 2020 as the date by which it should become one of the world's leading currencies. That is an ambitious goal, but US history suggests that it is not impossible to achieve.
Модернизация сверху как новая национальная идея – взамен "суверенной демократии"
В послании президента к Федеральному Собранию РФ достаточно четко зафиксирован новый риторический тренд, новый "философский камень" российской верховной власти: это МОДЕРНИЗАЦИЯ.
Возможно, это станет новой национальной идеей – вместо "сувер
Standard pay arrangements give executives broad discretion over when they sell shares and exercise options awarded to them as part of compensation plans. But such discretion is both unnecessary and counterproductive, while removing it would enhance the performance of firms – and thus value for shareholders.
As formal negotiations over the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula look set to resume, talk of a “grand bargain” remains unfortunately just that – talk. To speed the process, the US and other powers need to pursue constructive engagement with North Korea to encourage economic transition and integration with the global economy.
As impressive as Europe’s history has been since the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community in 1957, by no means should it be assumed that the EU cannot unravel. Much will depend on who becomes European President, and, despite their many differences, former Irish President Mary Robinson and French Finance Minister would both be excellent choices.
Walls designed to keep people in or out – whether they are in Berlin, Nicosia, Israel, or Korea – are always the product of fear. Ultimately, they represent the realities that lay behind their construction – realities that, unfortunately, later generations may be unable or unwilling to change.
Twenty years ago, at a time when the nuclear arms race was threatening humanity's existence, world leaders demonstrated resolve, faced up to opposition and immense pressure, and the Berlin Wall came down. It remains to be seen whether leaders will do the same when it comes to addressing today's existential threat - climate change.
Brazilian democracy, at long last, is working well, following many years of military government, and its economy seems more robust than ever. But two connected and major challenges lie ahead for Brazil and its government: the need to build a far more equal society and to resist the temptation to use nationalism to mask whatever domestic failures may manifest themselves.
If geography is destiny, South Korea was dealt a weak hand, and it has had a difficult history of developing sufficient "hard" military power to defend itself. But South Korea has the economic and cultural resources to produce significant soft power, allowing it to design a foreign policy that will give it a larger role in global governance.
No tumbrils have appeared in Paris’s Place de la Concorde, but something like a revolution is underway in France. Recent weeks have seen the trial of former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the conviction of former Defense Minister Charles Pasqua – and now even former President Jacques Chirac has learned that he is not immune from prosecution.
There are plenty of summits to choose from this year, but the World Summit on Food Security deserves not to be lost in the crowd. This meeting in Rome from November 16-18 provides badly needed political momentum to three linked issues that rank among the most challenging of the current era: food security, biodiversity, and climate change.
Securing reliable energy supplies was the key energy challenge of the 20th century. The other big energy challenge is climate change. Add the two global challenges, and you have a Gordian knot: We have to produce much more energy with much less CO2. This is a challenge, but it is also a huge business opportunity.
The IMF has slapped Brazil's wrist for daring to impose a 2% tax on short-term capital inflows. But such capital controls make a lot of sense, because “hot” inflows make it difficult for financially open economies like Brazil to maintain a competitive currency, depriving them of what is in effect the most potent form of industrial policy imaginable.
Media organizations in wealthy countries regularly send forth reporters to find “victims of global warming.” But when we actually listen to local people who are said to be in danger, it turns out that they are worried about far more immediate problems.
The IMF, along with many national leaders, seem ready to give full credit to what the Fund calls "strong public policies" for engineering what might be the end of the global economic recession. But, in terms of the certainty of the outcome, formulating economic policy is more like psychotherapy than engineering.
Of all the arguments against voluntary euthanasia, the most influential is the “slippery slope”: once we allow doctors to kill patients, we will not be able to limit the killing to those who want to die. There is no evidence for this claim, but recent revelations about what took place in a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina point to a genuine danger from a different source.
While the US recently reported 3.5% GDP growth in the third quarter, suggesting that the most severe recession since the Great Depression is over, the American economy is actually much weaker than official data suggest. The story of the US is one of two economies – a smaller one that is slowly recovering and a larger one that is still in a deep and persistent downturn.
What is uncanny about the current US debate about Afghanistan is the degree to which it displays continuity with the debate about the Vietnam war, and the Obama administration knows it. Lyndon Johnson knew that the Vietnam war could not be won even before his administration escalated it, but he also feared, rightly, that American presidents who lose wars also lose elections.
Хочется надеяться, что та степень независимости, та степень ответственности, которая была продемонстрирована депутатами в Варнавинском районе, станет вдохновляющим примером и для части депутатов городской думы - как Нижнего Новгорода, так и Дзержинска.
Если в стране не произойдет радикального ускорения технологического развития, страна утратит статус значительной мировой силы со всеми вытекающими последствиями для благосостояния её народа и для государственного единства.
Все модернизационные меры инициируются главой государства и предполагают усиление политической позиции Дмитрия Медведева внутри России. Но в предлагаемой программе не предполагается насилие и коренная ломка институтов власти.
Группа британских психологов из университета Лидса (University of Leeds) подсчитала, что женщинам для привлечения максимального внимания со стороны мужчин следует обнажать 40% поверхности тела.
В момент обострения политической борьбы, связанной с изменением полномочий Автономного края Воеводины и особенно после визита в Сербию российского президента, позиция ЕС заметно изменилась в направлении консолидации региона Западных Балкан и выделения Сербии как особого регионального центра.
Айны, коренной народ Японии, когда-то ловили медведей и лосося в диких лесах далеко на севере страны, но теперь они являются этническим меньшинством, борющимся за своё культурное выживание.
Принято считать, что конец войне во Вьетнаме положила всеобщая воинская повинность. Согласно этому объяснению, подлежащие призыву трусливые студенты колледжей и их непатриотичные семьи послужили причиной прекращения войны.
Конструкторское бюро "Навис" представило первые чипы для работы одновременно с системами навигации ГЛОНАСС и GPS, которые по размерам сопоставимы с чипами для GPS. Участники рынка говорят, что это переломный момент для российского рынка навигации, но отмечают, что отрасли будет трудно развиваться без поддержки государства.
