BRUSSELS – With regard to North Korea, the Obama Administration and China have been united by a common purpose: the avoidance of trouble. Despite some tensions between Washington and Beijing, the primary U.S. concern — containing Pyongyang’s nuclear proliferation and aggressive behavior — was not fundamentally at odds with that of the Chinese, which was to [...]

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The enduring image from last week’s UN conference on climate change in Durban, South Africa, was of negotiators “huddling” in full view on the plenary floor to come up with the form of words that allowed the final deal to be reached. The negotiators are in shirtsleeves, visibly tied at the end of talks that [...]

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MINSK– On 19 December 2010, Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a re-election (his fourth) marred by irregularities and falsifications. The mass protests that ensued were brutally repressed. All nine opposition candidates and 700 protesters were arrested; the opposition leaders Andrei Sannikov and Nikolai Statkevich remain in prison, as well as 13 other political [...]

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BERLIN – In politics, this has been a year of extreme weather. The Arab Spring dismantled decades-old autocracies through peaceful protest. The heat of summer scorched some even more brutal and determined rulers, from Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi (whose regime went up in fire) to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad (the flames are still licking at the foundations [...]

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KIEV– After reaching an agreement on Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization on Thursday, European Union leaders are set to meet Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in Kiev today. Although the EU-Ukraine summit should endorse an ambitious new political association and free trade agreement that has been five years in the making, the agreement’s fate is still [...]

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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – The Sunday before Christmas brought sad news around the world, but especially in my part of the world – Vaclav Havel, the dissident, writer, leader of the Velvet Revolution, former president of Czechs and  Slovaks, and one of the most remarkable human beings passed away. He will be remembered as a tireless [...]

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WASHINGTON—December 17 marks the first anniversary of a desperate act of self-immolation in Tunisia, which sparked a series of uprisings across the Arabic-speaking world, toppling three regimes, threatening to topple at least two others, and prompting several governments to take unprecedented measures to address popular dissatisfaction. But one year on, there is still widespread disagreement [...]

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WASHINGTON – Immigration and integration continue to be issues of paramount public concern in both the United States and Europe, and yet so rarely do we hear a transatlantic view on the common challenges faced by countries dealing with diverse immigrant populations. It is crucial to understand the views of the public on these key topics. [...]

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With traditional donors locked in economic stagnation, scant progress being recorded on the targets set for donors in the Paris Declaration, and the main providers of South-South co-operation set on maintaining freedom of action, one could be forgiven for having low expectations of the latest in the series of High Level Forums on Aid Effectiveness. [...]

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This past week, the Obama Administration announced its intention to nominate Rick Barton as the nation’s first ever Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations.  The announcement marks Washington’s latest run at creating a serious civilian “surge capacity” for managing instability and conflict in fragile states. Rick Barton, if the Senate chooses to [...]

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