It’s too soon to know how the events of this fast-fading year will ultimately reshape our world, but the upheaval we witnessed in 2011 will most assuredly keep future historians ponderously occupied. Indeed, it was a year of uprooting, breaking up and tilling the geopolitical soil — a year that will have mattered in many ways, many of which we don’t yet fully understand, but that clearly represent a turning point. Ten events in particular reshaped the global landscape in 2011. The Arab Uprisings. The spark lit by Tunisian food vendor Mohammed Bouazizi at the end of 2010 set much […]

Europe’s unresolved debt crisis has been the major problem facing the global economy of late. Beyond taking center stage for economic policymakers, Europe’s problems led investors to seek refuge in the safe haven of U.S. debt, dubiously anointed the “least dirty shirt” of the global economic landscape. As investors pulled out of faster-growing economies, the capital flight drove down the value of those countries’ currencies, many of which had been bid up at the beginning of 2011. While the problem of overvalued currencies may have receded over the summer, the underlying issue of currency manipulation still threatens the global economy. […]

Global Insider: Commercial Spy Satellites

Last month, satellite images taken by the private company DigitalGlobe suggested that an explosion at an Iranian military base was much larger than acknowledged by Iranian authorities. In an email interview, Tim Brown, a specialist in commercial satellite imagery at GlobalSecurity.org, discussed the commercial spy-satellite business. WPR: How has the commercial satellite sector evolved over the past decade? Tim Brown: At the start of 2001, there was only one high-resolution satellite in orbit — IKONOS, operated by Space Imaging (now GeoEye). Now there are five companies, operating 15 satellites. About 70 percent of GeoEye’s and DigitalGlobe’s sales have come from […]

OPEC Reaches Oil Output Deal

OPEC oil producers have agreed to a new production limit that will keep output at roughly its current level. Iran had wanted to cut production, which would boost prices. But Saudi Arabia’s argument — that levels should be maintained — won out.

U.S. Initiative on Gay Rights Raises Challenges for Diplomacy

In a memorandum issued by President Barack Obama and a speech made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the administration on Tuesday unveiled a plan to “promote and protect” the human rights of gay people around the world. In addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Clinton acknowledged that the “obstacles standing in the way” of protecting gay rights “rest on deeply held personal, political, cultural and religious beliefs.” According to Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, that suggests that Clinton has anticipated the tensions that will surely arise with the promotion of a global gay rights […]

Recent moves by Russia, Norway and even China have put a spotlight on the High North, where warming temperatures have led to greater seasonal ice melt and access. With increased future activity in the Arctic inevitable, the United States must begin to address some of the potential security challenges that could result. As part of this effort, the European Command (EUCOM) — the U.S. military command responsible for the Arctic — must leverage the progress made by the Arctic Council in nonsecurity matters to facilitate expanded security cooperation efforts in the region. The Arctic Council has successfully raised awareness of […]

Big Questions Loom Over Durban Climate Change Talks

Will the Kyoto Protocol survive? Should climate change be a religious issue? Are wealthy nations delivering on financial promises to help the developing world promote positive environmental change? Such big questions dominated the collective mindset of thousands of delegates converging on Durban, South Africa, from across the globe this week for the U.N.’s 17th annual global climate change talks. But, according to Jon A. Weiss, a U.S.-based climate change policy analyst and founder of the soon to launch nonprofit Lake Climate Group, it’s unlikely many certain answers will emerge by the conference’s close on Dec. 9. Most likely, Weiss told […]

A recently filed legal petition claiming that the United Nations acted negligently and recklessly in Haiti is raising difficult questions about U.N. accountability — and its legal immunity. The petition (.pdf), submitted Nov. 3, is already raising the possibility that a legally mandated, but rarely implemented, judicial procedure for civilians living in countries with U.N. peacekeeping missions will be enforced. As a result, the petition’s implications go far beyond the particulars of the Haiti case, in which more than 5,000 Haitians argue that the U.N. has so far failed to provide them with a means of remedy after cholera was […]