Safe Democracy Foundation - Safe Democracy

Positive developments in Pakistan include Gen. Musharraf’s decision to step down as chief of the army and promise to lift the state of emergency, as well as the appointment of pro-Western General Kiyani as Musharraf’s successor. Obstacles include attempting to hold fair elections within a country that is plagued by strong corruption at the governmental level. These elections will be a vital part of the transformation to civil rule, which will be a key stepping stone in helping Pakistan come out of its severe political crisis, argues the author.

Will the agreements that come out of Annapolis truly be implemented? Recent history demonstrates that Israelis as well as Palestinians have wielded arguments posterior to those that spoiled the achieved approximations. What will happen if the Summit in Annapolis fails?

Kosovo’s independence is inevitable, given the failure of multiethnicism in the Balkans, the overwhelming support it has amongst Kosovars, and the fact that Serbia’s grip upon the region is currently only nominal, argues the author. He suggests that the EU should play a more important role in mediating the conflict and attempt to implement the main parts of the Ahtisaari Plan. At the same time, caution must be exercised, so as to avoid a crisis with Serbia or Russia, as well as a repeat of the gruesome violence that gripped the region during the 1990s.

It is an outcry of hope that Annapolis meeting will be an opening for shifting paradigms towards a comprehensive Middle Eastern peace, otherwise the meeting participants will go there in order to loose their time, while any partial solution reached to one or more problem, will dwindle then vanish, in the new strong cycle of vicious violence that will prevail.

• The Middle East "peace question", again to debate
  por Walid Salem
• The Next Steps for Peace in the Middle East and West Asia
  por Sohail Mahmood

The crisis between the Turkish army and the Kurdish rebels of the PKK seems to be mitigated thanks to the offers guaranteed to Turkey on behalf of the United States and Iraq, but the chaos that devastated the latter, predicts that the conflict will continue in the short term, and possibly the long term as well. Turkey has emerged victorious from its first incursion but the future is no more flattering for its interests. A large part of the solution the crisis is thanks to the United States.

The conflict with the Kurdish guerrillas of the Workers’ Party that confronts the Turkish army could culminate in a large-scale, dangerous war operative that would end the fragile balance of the new Iraqi State. Meanwhile, the relationship between Washington and Ankara is going through a period of strong and unusual turbulence. It is worth asking whether this is due to a simple situational uneasiness or if it is the accumulation of negative signals presaging a confrontation between the two strategic allies.

Soul searching, an atmosphere of toleration and respect and a dialogue among the civilizations (the West and Islam). Mutual respect, justice and equity and the rejection of bigotry and hatred; all basic humans values that the West and Islam have in common. Why then is a dialogue between these two civilizations so hard?

The author discusses his views about a form of new anti-Iranianism referring to a general attitude of disrespect and vengefulness supported by the American media post 9-11, sighting examples such as the visit of Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to New York.

• The Cold War with Iran
  por Ricardo Israel Zipper

Experience demonstrates that radical groups often intervene during significant moments in order to deal harsh blows. The proximity of the Summit between Mahmood Abbas and Ehud Olmert in Annapolis, Maryland has already set off many alarms in Israel: is Hamas trying to get noticed before the Summit in November, because he was not invited?