Volume 35:1 – Winter 2011

The EU After Lisbon

January 20, 2011 by Baroness Catherine Aston and Ambassador João Vale de Almeida

Note from the editors: The 2009 Lisbon Treaty sought to restructure European Union institutions and transform the organization into a cohesive and robust global player. For Brussels, implementing this mandate has proven challenging. Acute internal and external pressures have slowed the EU’s transformation and brought doubts about its continued relevance on the international scene. The [...]

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Moving Beyond Mirages: Thomas de Waal Discusses a New Paradigm for Foreign Intervention in the South Caucasus

January 20, 2011 by Thomas de Waal

As tensions continue to erupt from Georgia to Chechnya, the Caucasus is a global hot spot that demands closer scrutiny. Caucasus scholar Thomas de Waal explores structural insecurity in the region and discusses “three mirages” that feed misinformed foreign intervention and perpetuate conflict. De Waal argues that viewing the Caucasus as a geopolitical chessboard is a mistake; he highlights instead the critical subtleties of the region’s tortured geography and the double-edged sword of its history.

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India’s Approach to Great-Power Status

January 20, 2011 by John Ciorciari

In the last decade, India has emerged as the world’s fourth-largest economy and a legitimate member of the “nuclear club.” John Ciorciari of the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy tracks how India has framed its foreign policy to effectuate its rise to global and regional power. He traces the path from a nation grappling with post-colonial legacies to a country asserting itself on the international stage as a great power, and outlines the future of the U.S.-Indian relationship.

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The Millennium Development Goals and Fragile States: Focusing on What Really Matters

January 20, 2011 by David Carment and Yiagadeesen Samy

Fragile states account for roughly 15 percent of the world population and are far from achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). David Carment and Yiagadeesen Samy, of Carleton University, believe that the recent United Nations Summit, intended to evaluate progress toward achieving the MDGs, was a missed opportunity to focus attention on fragile and conflictaffected states. The authors argue that unless—and until—the international community realizes that fragile and conflict-affected states require the most effort, attaining the MDGs by the 2015 target date will be difficult.

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The Twilight of the Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons

January 20, 2011 by Amy Woolf

In the opening lines of The Twilight of the Bombs, Richard Rhodes notes, “when the ice broke on the river of history in the final years of the Cold War, the world had lived with nuclear weapons for almost half a century.” Rhodes chronicled the early years of this era in his first two books, [...]

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Venezuela’s Legislative Elections: Arm Wrestling with Hugo Chávez

January 20, 2011 by Alejandro Tarre

While President Hugo Chávez and his incumbent party won 60 percent of the seats in Venezuela’s recent legislative election, journalist Alejandro Tarre says this nonetheless constitutes a victory for the opposition. Tarre details how the opposition was able to gain seats despite unfair electoral laws and the
government’s abuse of power. He discusses developments since the election and strikes an optimistic note about the opposition’s future prospects.

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The Education of Poverty: Rebuilding Haiti’s School System after its “Total Collapse”

January 20, 2011 by Brendan McNulty

The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti devastated its already weak primary and secondary education system. Brendan McNulty, a fellow at the Inter-American Development Bank, discusses the imperative to establish a functioning education system and explores how the earthquake exacerbated perennial challenges to the Haitian education system, while also perhaps offering some hope. He analyzes reconstruction efforts involving the Government of Haiti and such organizations as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, arguing that an education system premised on local ownership and focused on sustainability is Haiti’s best hope.

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