NUSA DUA, Indonesia — As the 13th meeting of the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) enters its second and final week, there has been mixed progress on the resort island of Bali, where representatives of some 190 countries have converged to plot a roadmap for mitigating global warming when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The second week coincides with the arrival of national delegations’ ministers and is meant to seal the deals negotiated by technicians during the first week. However, although most UNFCCC observers would agree with Emil Salim, head of the host [...]
This week, world leaders and scientists are meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to articulate a global strategy to deal with global warming. Even though it remains unlikely that major policy initiatives will be announced, the venue provides an important platform to increase U.S.-Japanese leadership on global warming. Historically, U.S.-Japan relations have benefited from multiple layers of bilateral cooperation. As the U.S.-Japan bilateral relationship evolves, traditional military and economic cooperation will prove insufficient to guard against malignant stresses in the alliance. The recent meeting in Washington of Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and President Bush provided the foundation for a new pillar [...]
This past Sunday, Russians went to the polls to vote in national parliamentary elections. The result was hardly in doubt — the United Russia Party of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin swept to victory. Equally predictable was the reaction of most Western media to this largely foreordained result. We are told that Putin is reviving the Soviet Union and that he has been busy building a cult of personality while crushing all political opposition. More importantly, we are told that Putin is reigniting the Cold War rivalry between Russia and the United States. This is the message that we constantly read [...]
