World Today, The

A 21st Century Alliance?

The idea of a share swap is said to have originated fromameeting betweenRussianDeputy PrimeMinister Igor Sechin and former CEO of BP Tony Hayward inMoscow last summer. Since 1998 the two companies have beenworking together on the Sakhalin-5 project, which has provided first hand experience of the challenges of exploration in Arctic-like conditions under Russian jurisdiction. According to theUS Energy Information Agency, in 2007 IOCs only had full access to six percent of theworld's oil rese...

A Glimmer of Hope

The so-calledNorthern Limit Line (NLL),which the South sees as defining the boundary of South Korean maritime space and sovereign control, was established following the 1953 armistice that signalled the suspension of formal military hostilities betweenNorth and South.Disputes surrounding the absence of a commonly agreedmaritime boundary have been compounded by disagreement over the geographical reach of each side's territorial waters, defined in terms of the distance these waters extend beyon...

A Way to Go

MISTAKES MADE In principle, Kosovo was very well set up to run free and fair elections: an active and interesting landscape of political parties and coalitions; a guaranteed minority representation, a large number of young and energetic voters, and on top of that, the watchful eye of the international community's electionobservers. Since December 12 proceededwithout incident, all appeared to have gone well. [...] Hashim Thaci celebrated his victory on December 13, and the EU's Catherine Ash...

Aid for the Aid Givers

In essence, the formal intrusion of UN andmajor western nations into non-international conflicts has, fromthe insurgents' perspective, compromised the neutrality that existed during the cold war era when humanitarian aid was perceived as being neutral. [...] an approach would face significant obstacles, fromthe practical (which international organisation, what enforcement powers would it have to ensure humanitarian organisations were acting in a neutralmanner, what would be the approach to c...

Back in the Freezer

sINCE THE INCUMBENT PRESIDENT ALEXANDER Lukashenka came to power sixteen years ago, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has never recognised an election held in this authoritarian state. [...] to Russia's last presidential election, opposition candidates were freely permitted to register; air-time on the highly controlled mass media was made available for candidates to express critical views; and a televised presidential debate took place, in which the incumbent di...

Chatham House: Events February

Perspectives, Processes And Projections Kerry Brown, Senior Fellow, Asia Programme, Chatham House, Chris Hughes, Professor of International Politics and Japanese Studies, University of Warwick, Winnie King and Takashi Terada FEBRUARY 7 Political Realities And The Mechanics Of Voting In Nigeria Ambassador John Campbell and Ralph Bunche, Senior Fellow, Africa Policy Studies, Council On Foreign Relations FEBRUARY 10 Legal Responsibility Of International Organisations In International Law Sir Mic...

Moment in the Sun

At first sight, the chances of Tunisians collectively affecting a peaceful move towards amore open political and economic systemare good, or at least considerably better than the initial outlook that the ousted president was merely being replaced in a counter-coup by the army or the erstwhile presidential party, the Democratic and Constitutional Assembly (RCD in its French acronym).

Neighbourly Strain

According to leaked cables, the Saudi Arabian ambassador toWashington, Adel al-Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz told Barack Obama's administration 'to cut off the head of the snake,' while Egyptian president HosniMubarak called Iran's nuclear pursuit, 'the biggest threat to non-proliferation efforts since the Cubanmissile crisis.' [...] Turkey's linking of Iran's nuclear pursuit to Israel's nuclear programme has further discredited Turkey in the eyes of Israelis.

Podium Pressure

A matter of great pride for any country, hosting major sporting events offers emerging markets especially the opportunity to consolidate a global identity and leave a lasting impression as significant international players, be that positive or negative. [...] for Seoul, hosting the Winter Olympics in 1988 provided an opportunity to confirm its transition from a developing to developed country, while India found out the cost of negative attention when its lack of preparation for the 2010 Comm...

Testing Times

According to Article IX of the treaty, a state qualifies as a NWS by meeting an explicit condition: the state must have manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device before January 1, 1967.Thus the fivepermanentmembers of the UNSecurity Council - Britain, theUnited States (US), Russia, France and China - qualify to be NWS and it seems that all other states are NNWS. According to Karpin, a 'nuclear device was completed and tested by a procedure known in the prof...

The Survivor Exits

At just 48 years old, Djukanovic has an impressive political pedigree and leaves a significant legacy.He has served five terms as primeminster, one as president, and has ledMontenegro's dominant political party, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), since 1997, wrestling control of it froma faction led by Momir Bulatovic, an ally of SlobodanMilosevic.He subsequently steeredMontenegro through the stormy waters of the war in neighbouring Kosovo and the threat of civil war inMontenegro befor...

Washington's New Direction

The region's structural democratic deficit is often hidden frommainstreamview by sharper focus around international concern over a future conflict triggered by the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian talks, Iran's nuclear programme, or the United Nations' tribunal on the assassination of Hariri. The continued legacy of these conflicts is seen in the language of the US sanctions on the country which declare that Syria is a 'unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy...