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Over the last few decades most, if not all, Arab-Israeli crises have occurred when the United States has been either unable or unwilling to play an aggressive role as a mediator; and most have only abated after the United States has finally thrown itself into the middle of them.
The Russian government has resorted to police practices strongly reminiscent of those used some three decades ago in the Soviet Union. Putin wants recognition of Russia's leading position on the world scene and respect for its economic and geopolitical interests. But he demands that it be recognized as is, not at the cost of softening his increasingly authoritarian policies.
Among the Russian oil majors, Lukoil is the most ambitious when it comes to plans outside the country. The Middle East is central to its strategy of concentrating 23 percent of its total production outside of Russia by 2015, and these plans in large part focus on Iraq.
As most Americans were celebrating Independence Day on July 4, the small, ravaged nation of Cambodia celebrated what it hoped would be its independence from one of the most horrific periods in twentieth-century history. In a hall of the royal palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, in front of a Buddhist monk, judges for the upcoming tribunal of the Khmer Rouge were sworn into office.
By the end of 2005, Timor seemed relatively stable, and appeared to have developed a vibrant civil society and a nascent democracy. Today the entire nation has collapsed into an orgy of communal violence. The reason is that Timor could never broaden its economic growth, very much created by the UN. The idea of Timor as a success story has vanished, providing a lesson for future UN operations.
Has President George W. Bush given up on his liberty doctrine? From Libya to Iran to Azerbaijan, the Bush administration appears to have downgraded the importance of democracy promotion in the last several months. Nowhere, however, has a new indifference to democracy been more striking than in Egypt.
An African child dies of malaria nearly every 30 seconds, and the disease is estimated to cost Africa as much as $12 billion in lost gross domestic product each year. The cost of providing the necessary drugs for the world's malaria sufferers is negligible by the standards of the rich world, yet leadership has been noticeably absent from Washington.
When the polls open in Kuwait on Thursday, Kuwaiti women will be able to cast their votes for national candidates for the first time in the country's history. This election has huge implications for the role of women in Kuwaiti society, the future of Kuwaiti politics and democratic reform in the region at large.
U.S. and European officials are voicing their concern over Russia's domestic political situation and its relations with the former Soviet republics. Washington must understand that positive change in Russia can only come from within and that economic realities, rather than democratic ideals, will be the vehicle for that change.
Is the United States retreating from its democracy promotion agenda in the Arab world? Has the Bush administration become fearful of the potential outcome of Arab democratization after the electoral victory of Hamas and the considerable gains of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's parliamentary elections last year?