From Foreign Policy, a look at the World’s Most Powerful Crime Syndicates. How Dr Chan intends to defend the planet from pandemics: The new powers vested in the WHO's boss should, in theory, cut the risk of killer diseases raging round the world. Megacities, mega dreams for a connected world: Cities such as Bombay present many strange paradoxes, linking challenge with opportunity. Home on the Rainforest: Programs like carbon ranching represent the world’s best hope to save vanishing tropical forests and avert global climate catastrophe. A review of How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor by Erik S. Reinert.
From Human Rights & Human Welfare, a series of essays on Human Rights in Russia and the former Soviet Republics. From The Liberal, a series of essays on Russia in the age of Putin, and on 27th February 2007, you could not buy the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta in Moscow for love nor money – something unheard of since the heady days of perestroika. The reason for the furor? During the row over weaponry that thundered on during the G8 summit at Heiligendamm, Vladimir Putin took a leaf out of his own book, Judo: History, Theory, Practice. A review of First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Reinventing Russia: Russian Nationalism and the Soviet State, 1953-1991. A review of Death of a Dissident: the Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB by Alex Goldfarb. From Exile, what's a gopnik? They're the last males on planet earth who can get away with wearing those 20s-style leather gangster caps without looking like drama school fags rehearsing for a musical.
Immanuel Wallerstein on a missile defense shield: Crazy idea or rational objective? Policing the undergoverned spaces: The Americans are intensifying their hunt for al-Qaeda in the Sahara and beyond. Hamas may find it needs its enemy: Two Palestines could emerge. But don’t write off the chances for unity (and a comparison of the two territories). Should we simply ignore the Mideast? Niall Ferguson on why the Mideast matters. More troops, more troubles: Candidates who call for beefing up our armed forces to deter terrorism show a profound misunderstanding of the Mideast.
From TNR, a look at why America doesn't need to hear from Mike Gravel; and Bill Richardson v. his resumé: The New Mexico governor is running for president on his experience. That might not be such a great idea. Hillary Studies: Two new books about Clinton add to the canon, but do little to illuminate who she really is as she eyes the White House (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more). An interview with Bay Buchanan, author of The Extreme Makeover of Hillary (Rodham) Clinton (and a review). What Women See When They See Hillary: Some of the same feminists who loved Hillary as First Lady are now fiercely opposing her bid for the White House. For the male candidate, sports equal machismo, but there is no playbook for a woman running for president. It has got to be Al Gore: If he is as serious about climate change as he says he is, he has to run for the US presidency.
