What lessons can be learned from the fall of Lehman Brothers? Is Lehman’s bankruptcy only a financial matter? How can an investment bank go bankrupt? What happens when it goes bankrupt? Why has Washington not intervened now if it did do so in the bankruptcies of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Bear Stearns? Can more banks go bankrupt? Why is this crisis lasting so long? How did it all begin? What consequences can this have for the average citizen?

Al Qaeda is losing the support of prominent members of the Islamic clergy and former jihadists due to the acts that it has been carrying recently which, in their wake, have left destruction, misery, and an appalling number of people dead (especially in the Islamic world). This has wound up affecting the coherence of the organization’s ideological discourse. Does this mean that Al Qaeda is going to disappear as a result of the criticism that it has received from its former members? In the short and medium term the answer is, of course: no.

From Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Cambodia, Afghanistan and Colombia, a large number of countries have been –and continue to be– afflicted with serious conflicts over the control of natural resources (oil, diamonds, hardwood, cocoa beans, cocaine and opium). Although some conflicts have come to an end, others are still ongoing and it is possible that many more will arise in the future if the matter is not addressed, from both within and outside of the borders of the war-afflicted countries, in an efficient manner.

• Climate Change: A New Source of Armed Conflict
  por Mabel González Bustelo
• The dispute for African Oil
  por Eloísa Vaello Marco

Nature provides ways for all species of animals to always have food. However, despite the planet’s potential and technological advances, decision makers have failed to be able to guarantee the provision of basic food for mankind.

• FAO summit in Rome: Success or Failure?
  por Germán Rojas
• Obscene Disparities
  por Bernardo Kliksberg

Is the glass half full or half empty? Despite criticisms, the recent meeting of the FAO in Rome reached various and important achievements, like the treatment of agriculture and food as principle themes in the international political agenda, next to energy and climate change, the author says. Secondly, more than 6,500 million dollars were raised in support of the cause.

• Why it is necessary to increase the worldwide supply of food and to give benefits to the poor
  por Joaquín Mirkin
• What Does the Increase of Food Prices Imply for the World?
  por Ricardo Israel Zipper

If a stop is not put to the effects of climate change, and if drought continues to grow in wide stretches of the globe, factors such as hunger, population displacement, imbalance and armed conflict will be intensified. The poorest countries will suffer the harshest consequences, the author says. In this respect, wealthy countries should face their responsibilities.

• Ecological challenges: how to move from declarations to actions
  por Ferran Requejo
• Climate Change Hits the Poorest, Hardest
  por Bernardo Kliksberg

Latin America paints a paradoxical picture. It is producing food for three times its actual population, yet 25 percent of new mothers suffer from malnutrition, 42-57 percent of child deaths are caused by it, and 16 percent of children suffer from it chronically.

• Obscene Disparities
  por Bernardo Kliksberg

As globalization increasingly provides access to resources necessary for the spread of militant radicalism, it also allows valuable opportunities to begin healing animosities between certain Western countries and the developing world. The slogan of the environmental movement, think globally and act locally, would be an appropriate point of departure for building a global peace movement, says the author.

The strong rise in food prices worldwide has diverse and complex causes, but the situation can be summarized in the following: the demand has risen much more than the supply. If developed nations fail to recognize this, and fail to put fresh money towards the subsidy of food for the poorest, millions of people could die of hunger. The author recommends increasing the global supply of food (through existing technology and science), subsidizing food for the poorest, and implementing free trade worldwide in agriculture.