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Russia has overwhelming reasons to join the World Trade Organization early. For Russia, the timing of its accession is more important than the exact conditions. The later Russia joins, the more cumbersome the demands will be and the greater the social cost.
Bush and his foreign team certainly have their hands full. Yet, they cannot allow past victories to slip away while pursuing new ones. A return of dictatorship in Russia, a country armed with thousands of nuclear weapons, would present a much greater threat than the current set of tyrants now threatening U.S. security.
It may be time to admit that there will never in fact be a common European foreign and security policy. Long before the crisis over Iraq erupted, momentum towards the creation of such a policy was quietly ebbing away.
The systematic terrorization of the elite - the arrest of scores of people who have experience in running the government and the economy, the terrorization of their families, the push into exile and silence of dozens of other people has enormous consequences for the capacity of a state as small as Turkmenistan to govern itself.
The soon-to-be members of the EU are to be congratulated but a new divide has emerged to their east. Until now, the EU has been so preoccupied with its enlargement that it has had little time to look further east. It must now face up to its responsibility and focus on what it can do. The EU's goal should be to integrate the post-Soviet economies for mutual economic benefit and political stability.
Beijing provides critical energy and food aid to Pyongyang. Indeed, without Beijing's economic support, conditions in North Korea are likely to deteriorate dramatically. Logically, China ought to be the country the US should court actively to increase the diplomatic pressure on North Korea and reduce the tensions over Pyongyang's dangerous nuclear programmes.