Analysis

Only with a long term and radical U-turn on policy can the West hope to gradually undermine the roots of fundamentalist, Islamic terror cults and help to save, rather than destroy civilization. Only then will these cults loose their power and mystically disappear into thin air, just as « miraculously » as they seemed to evolve into monsters from « nowhere ».

For nearly 50 years, Cuban President Fidel Castro has been Latin America's best-known leftist revolutionary. Who will wear the revolutionary mantle in the post-Castro era? Many analysts believe President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela will pick up Castro's banner, but others question whether Mr. Chavez will ever attain the Cuban leader's international stature.

While the polities of east Europe - let alone central Europe - are the targets of mass immigration from even poorer regions of the earth like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Africa and central and east Asia, denizens of deprived members of the former Soviet bloc flock to the greener pastures of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Croatia, Greece, Austria and Germany.

The American interest in the Middle East began around the mid-1950s. With the weakened French and British influence in this region it was considered highly vulnerable to a Soviet or communist attack.

The new version of Article 115 of the European Unione Treaty, is rather curious. On the one hand, it grants greater power to the Commission, on the other hand, however, the new second paragraph seems to return some powers to the Member States.

The recent campaign of reforms leading up to membership benefited the nation by imposing a stable well-tested set of international norms and rules on the Chinese economy, traditionally subject to the more arbitrary, shifting rules laid down by the party.

The stalling of US and UK ambitions for Turkey to become a member of the EU during December 2006 has presented a challenge for Tony Blair during his sunset period as British Prime Minister.

Should a government negotiate with terrorists? This has been a debate in Spain for at least the last months.

In February 2003, Bulgaria, currently sitting on the Security Council, was one of ten east and southeast European countries - known as the Vilnius Group - to issue a strongly worded statement in support of the United States' attempt to disarm Iraq by military means. This followed a similar, though much milder, earlier statement by eight other European nations, including Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, the EU's prospective members in central Europe.

As sectarian conflict is the most common form of violence that tears states apart, wreaking economic havoc and claiming the lives of civilians and combatants alike, prediction as to the possibility of such conflicts is an essential task for policymakers. Failure to do so can have devastating consequences, as one is witnessing each day in Iraq and Sudan, among other places.

Somalia is quickly becoming the next battleground in the war on terrorism. But what can the United States do about it?

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the beginning of the end to the Cold War, which, by most accounts, made the world safer. But some analysts say lingering Cold War legacies and new threats make today's world just as dangerous.

With the December 2006 Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) announcement of plans to “develop a joint nuclear program for peaceful purposes” followed on the heals of Egypt’s expressed desire to harness nuclear energy and Iran’s continued progress, a Mideast nuclear arms race may be underway. Only a pragmatic, evenhanded approach can put the nuclear genie back into the bottle and effectively prevent a nuclear conflict that could impact the entire world.

With the crumbling of the Warsaw pact and the economies of the region, millions of former military and secret service operators resorted to peddling weapons and martial expertise to rogue states, terrorist outfits, and organized crime. The confluence - and, lately, convergence - of these interests is threatening Europe's very stability.

Albania, often accused in the past of harboring unemployed mujaheedin and al-Qaida cells, has offered to contribute 70-75 fighters to Bush's anti-Iraqi "coalition of the willing". Earlier this month, it co-signed the US-Adriatic Charter, enshrining closer cooperation with America, Croatia and Macedonia.