A municipal health worker sprays insecticide to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito, Joao Pessoa, Brazil, Feb. 22, 2016 (AP photo by Andre Penner).

The Zika virus is not new, but its spread and possible connections to microcephaly—a birth defect in which a baby has an abnormally small head—have caught the international community’s attention. Zika is not the same kind of challenge as Ebola, but it will require some similar measure of international cooperation to adequately address. While the World Health Organization’s declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Feb. 1 is a good start, there are still fundamental questions that could complicate the international community’s response. Why is Zika spreading now? The virus, which emerged out of its relative geographic […]

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza during a meeting, Bujumbura, Burundi, Feb. 23, 2016 (AP photo).

Violence has enveloped Burundi since last April, when protests broke out following President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial announcement that he would run for a third term, despite a constitutional two-term limit. On Tuesday, after meeting with Nkurunziza in the capital, Bujumbura, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that Nkurunziza had agreed to hold talks with the opposition. Nkurunziza also said that he would release 2,000 people detained by authorities amid the unrest. The president’s decision last year to run again was met with outcries from Burundi’s opposition, which called the move unconstitutional. In May, rogue military officers attempted a coup, which the […]

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, New York, Dec. 18, 2015 (AP photo by Bebeto Matthews).

It is difficult to see how the United Nations can get through 2016 without taking the blame for one or more major catastrophes. Its latest efforts to make peace in Syria have gone off the rails. The Security Council is fretting about the risks of mass violence in Burundi. U.N. peacekeeping operations have had a shaky start to the year. Terrorists have kept up attacks on peacekeepers in Mali. Last week, violence in a U.N. camp in South Sudan spiraled out of control, claiming at least 18 lives. It may just be a matter of time before a similar incident […]

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For more than six decades following India’s independence in 1947, urbanization remained an afterthought for policymakers, who hardly recognized the positive relationship between urban expansion and economic development. It wasn’t until 1984, when Rajiv Gandhi became India’s youngest prime minister and brought with him a new, young brigade of leaders, that those in power began to acknowledge that urbanization could serve India’s economy. Gandhi’s initiatives on urbanization, while new, were nonetheless hesitant. Through the 1990s and the early 2000s, analysts increasingly spoke of India’s “urban turn” and hinted at the beginnings of a serious investment in urban infrastructure and connectivity. […]

Emirati officials watch U.S. President Barack Obama's address at the opening ceremony of the World Government Summit, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 8, 2016 (AP photo by Kamran Jebreili).

This week, world leaders are gathering in Dubai for the fourth World Government Summit. It’s a bit surreal to talk about world government these days, given the recent setback to the United Nations’ efforts to get Syria peace talks off the ground, and the undeniable failures of governments across the Arab world to provide stability and a modicum of freedom to their citizens. Clearly, too, the summit is part of the United Arab Emirates’ relentless pursuit of its global brand. But it is also about the UAE’s desire to set a more positive agenda for the Arab world. The gathering […]

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses delegates during the donor conference 'Supporting Syria & The Region,' London, U.K., Feb. 4, 2016 (AP photo by Dan Kitwood).

Is it time for Ban Ki-moon to quit? This is not an obvious moment for United Nations secretary-general to do so. His second term is set to finish at the end of this year anyway. The race to replace him is heating up, with a posse of politicians from Eastern Europe jostling for the lead. Ban is not very secretly planning to run for the presidency of South Korea next year, and there has been speculation that he could leave New York early to campaign. But for now, U.N. officials and diplomats seem to think he’ll last the course. Having […]

Fumigating a classroom in a mosquito eradication effort against the spread of the Zika virus, Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Jan. 28, 2016 (AP photo by Salvador Melendez).

A public health emergency is, above all, a human crisis. But its consequences don’t end there. A major emergency, whether its severity is real or perceived, can have a significant economic and political impact. Now that the World Health Organization has declared the Zika virus an “international public health emergency,” warning that the mosquito-borne pathogen is spreading “explosively,” the Zika outbreak has become loaded with even more political power. Zika’s force comes not only from the tragic effects it can apparently have on babies. Scientists have not proven the link, but they believe the virus is behind the thousands of […]

A man rows his boat through a flooded street in Concordia, Argentina, Dec. 28, 2015 (AP photo by Natacha Pisarenko).

The global weather event known as El Niño has been blamed for droughts in Central America and northern South America and record-breaking floods in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. But some scientists warn that the worst could be yet to come. El Niño poses major challenges for Latin America’s governments, some of which are in the midst of economic and political crises. The weather phenomenon is also testing their ability to face the growing threat of climate change, now and in the future. Scientists believe that El Niño, a warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean about once every decade […]

French and Iranian energy officials at a bilateral agreements session, Paris, Jan. 28, 2016 (AP photo by Stephane de Sakutin).

Would anyone like to save Europe from itself? The continent is presently enduring economic weakness, an influx of refugees, rising nationalism and a general sense of insecurity. All too often, its leaders’ collective response to these multiple threats is not to take decisive action but to look around for someone else to do so, echoing the motto of Charles Dickens’ eternal optimist, Mr. Micawber: “Something will turn up.” The range of “somethings” that might dig Europe out of its strategic hole is broad. Russia could become more moderate, easing security fears. Turkey and African states might adopt robust policies to […]