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When Spain’s Prime Minister José Rodríguez Zapatero this summer revealed a plan to offer women 2,500 euros ($3,400) to have more children, he was seeking to reverse a future in which the elderly would outnumber the working young — a demographic trend that affects not only Spain, but also the entire continent. For almost a generation, wealthy and well-fed Europe has been bringing forth too few children to replenish its graying population for the coming decades. Save Ireland, and possibly amorous France, birthrates have dipped far below the replacement level of 2.1, giving the old continent an overall average of […]

Toward the end of August, French President Nicolas Sarkozy ushered in a new phase in the diplomatic negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program by calling for tougher sanctions against Iran. In the event that the U.N. Security Council should prove incapable of taking action, Sarkozy demanded that the Europeans take action themselves: unilaterally. It is only by applying massive economic pressure, Sarkozy argued, that “a catastrophic alternative” could still be avoided: “either the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.” At the same time, Sarkozy pressured the French energy companies Total and Gaz de France to forego any further investments […]

On Oct. 6, 2007, the leaders of the Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasec) convened their 15th anniversary summit at Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin described this session of the Eurasec Intergovernmental Council as one of the organization’s most successful, the most notable development at the meeting was Moscow’s decision to pursue deeper economic integration with only some of the organization’s members. Eurasec’s main function is to promote trade ties among countries that formed an integrated economic system during the Soviet period. Since the U.S.S.R.’s disintegration in 1991, these states have frequently diverged in their national macroeconomic policies and have […]

PRISTINA and MITROVICA, Kosovo — Kosovo will make a unilateral declaration of independence within days of the delivery of a report on its status to the U.N. on Dec. 10, according to the breakaway Serbian province’s prime minister, Agim Ceku. But what then? Kosovo has declared independence twice before, but only secured the recognition of neighboring Albania. “The circumstances are very different this time,” Ceku told World Politics Review in a recent interview. “Now we have got everything that has been developed in the last eight years under the U.N. administration: We have a parliament; we have a government; we […]

If Myanmar’s military leaders appear immune to internal pressure for change, and if they care little about the protestations of the “international community” unless such pressure can directly effect their interests, the two rising world powers on Myanmar’s borders perhaps hold the last hope for influencing the junta. The conventional wisdom says that even if China is ultimately unwilling to play a positive role, India can be counted on. “I think India would be able to exercise influence on Myanmar. China needs natural resources so badly that it may not be willing to call for the use of force. As […]

JERUSALEM — Ever since this June’s open warfare between rival Palestinians of Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the accusations, recriminations, smears and hoaxes have been flying wildly in the Palestinian Territories. In addition to the violence that still pits supporters of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, against followers of the more secular Fatah, the parties have launched elaborate publicity campaigns to bolster their own side and discredit the other in the eyes of fellow Palestinians and the rest of the world. One of the hoaxes, designed to make Fatah look more reliable to the West and to Israel, […]

According to statements made Sept. 27 by the Turkish Minister of Energy Hilmi Güler, Ankara and Tehran plan to sign an accord this month on the exploitation of the natural gas reserves of South Pars on the southern Iranian coast. In a preliminary agreement concluded in July, it had already been agreed that Turkey’s state-controlled oil company would invest some $3 billion over seven years in the construction of operating equipment. In addition, Turkish and Iranian enterprises are supposed to develop joint ventures for the transport of the gas by way of a pipeline system that will extend to eastern […]

On Sept. 28, Belarussian Defense Minister Leonid Maltsev repeated his government’s warning that U.S. plans to deploy ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems in Poland and the Czech Republic could have “unpredictable consequences” for Eurasian security. Maltsev’s comments, delivered at a press conference after a meeting of the defense ministers of the member states of the Russian-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, have revived concerns that Russia might place nuclear weapons in Belarus as a countermeasure to the U.S. BMD deployments. Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that his government had no plans to deploy […]

Editor’s Note: Rights & Wrongs is a weekly column covering the world’s major human rights-related happenings. It is written by regular WPR contributor Juliette Terzieff. U.N. FINDS MASSIVE ANGOLA ABUSES — A United Nations special investigative team has found widespread human rights abuses in Angola’s legal system, including incidences of torture and detention without effective legal redress. “The right to access to a lawyer and a corresponding legal aid system as guaranteed by the [Angolan] constitution, exists only in theory. Legal assistance is only available during the trial stage and sometimes the accused do not enjoy the benefit of a […]

The intense political and media scrutiny directed towards Blackwater Inc. this week evokes the old Irish saying that “calm waters run deep, but the Devil lurks in the depths.” During congressional hearings, the rock was lifted to reveal one of the most profound developments in the American way of war since perhaps the use of conscription during the Civil War: civilianization of the battlefield. Ironically, the media exposure of the stark statistic that there are today more civilian contractors serving in Iraq than members of the armed forces occurred during the same week when many Americans tuned in to the […]

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — Its snow-capped peaks, crystal-clear lakes and pristine landscapes could put Tajikistan on par with pastoral hot spots in New Zealand or Switzerland. However, lingering Soviet-era paranoia and a dizzying array of as many as 11 permits required for travelers wishing to visit, set against a backdrop of a public infrastructure that could only kindly be called crumbling, make it unlikely that this Central Asian nation will be vying for the title of top tourist destination anytime soon. Divesting themselves of the tangles of red tape to be more accessible to travelers, tourists and investors has been a […]

UNITED NATIONS, New York — A U.N.-sponsored summit last week on climate change laid the groundwork for further unified global action on limiting greenhouse gasses, but a separate meeting organized by the Bush administration rolled out a unilateral agenda that did little more than widen the gap between the United States and other countries. First came Monday’s summit, convened by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations, and attended by numerous world leaders and heads of government. The gathering was a prelude to the U.N. conference on climate change in Bali in December, which the world organization hopes will […]

JERUSALEM — In Britain, the University and College Union has just announced it has to cancel plans to boycott all Israeli academics and promote Palestinian views because the boycott, surprise of surprises, would break anti-discrimination laws. The British government, as well as fellow academics around the world, criticized as immoral, inappropriate and counterproductive the union’s one-sided approach to the complicated Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But who can blame Europeans for hating Israel, really? After all, when you look at the news they read and watch, it is clear that Israel is a country run by vicious and malevolent thugs. News coverage from […]

ROME — A design to create a unified party of the center-left in Italy risks undermining the very government it supports and is unlikely to appease Italians, who are increasingly disgruntled with the political status quo in their country. The new Partito Democratico (Democratic Party) will officially be born on Oct. 14, when Italians will choose the party’s leadership and constituent assembly in nationwide primary elections. But many fear that the baptism of the new center-left party will be the last rites for Prodi and his troubled government. Italy’s fractious ruling coalition, lead by Prime Minister Romano Prodi, has seemed […]

It is difficult today to recall the anxiety that shook America when, fifty years ago, Sputnik pierced the atmosphere. “No event since Pearl Harbor set off such repercussions in public life,” University of Pennsylvania historian Walter A. McDougall has observed. Sputnik was the starting gun for a desperate, urgent race between the United States and the Soviet Union for space superiority — and the military advantages it might confer — which would consume billions while leaving neither nation safer. These days, the phrase “space race” seems antiquated, an almost quaint relic of a bygone era. But behind the competition to […]

On July 13, 1989, a frantic getaway is taking place out front of an apartment house at 5 Linke Bahngasse in Vienna. In an article for the Austrian weekly Profil, the journalists Sibylle Hamann und Martin Staudinger reconstruct the scene: A secret agent has been shot and he is dragged by two other men between two parked cars. He is bleeding from multiple wounds. A man on a motorcycle pulls up beside them. All four are members of an Iranian terror commando unit that has left behind a bloodbath in a two-room apartment on the fourth floor of the building […]

TOKYO — “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic,” according to Joseph Stalin. Despite the dubious source of the quote, its substance provides a telling insight into the way certain deaths are covered in the media. This has been particularly true for the death of Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai, who was shot dead last week in Myanmar. The case has sparked outrage around the world and, unsurprisingly, has been extensively covered by the media in Japan. At first there was uncertainty on how to treat the most striking element of the story — the fact […]