Understand why the war in Afghanistan could turn into an authentic nightmare for Barack Obama, unless he gets commitments from regional powers like Iran, Pakistan and India, aside from Russia, China and the EU.

• The "carrot and stick" policy in Afghanistan
  por Alberto Priego

Although an outrage against the Israeli offensive in Gaza was sweeping the globe, fear of the Jewish State and its dependable American ally has kept the international community from laying down the law. In the author’s view, the world lacks strong political leaders capable of rising to the occasion.

A policy of pressure on the Afghan government, combined with the outstretched hand that the appointment of Richard Holbrooke constitutes: this is the strategy that the new American administration is hoping to implement in order to stabilize Afghanistan, a country that could not be conquered by neither the Greeks, the British nor the Russians, and whose instability threatens to spread throughout the region.

The United Nations Security Council should meet at once to declare Gaza an emergency zone under the umbrella of the United Nations in accordance with Chapter VII, and immediately send a multinational peacekeeping force to the Strip in coordination with Israel and the Palestinian National Authority.

Find out why the House of Lords did the right thing in defeating a bill that would have allowed for the detention of suspects for up to 42 days without being formally charged with an offence.

While Obama has raised many hopes and achieved a rhetorical break with the totalitarian language of the Bush administration, his choice of advisers indicates regression rather than progression. Yet if his promise turns out to be meretricious, the world’s rocky relationship with the United States will deteriorate even further.

The author says that Israel now has to lead a massive humanitarian aid effort directed at the Gazan population, and make sure that Hamas does not continue with is weapons contraband effort. Israel must send a message of normalcy to the Palestinian population.

In 1968, Israel was warned that if it were to lose its self-control and ability to keep its position in the tumultuous Middle East would weaken significantly. In 2008 and on into 2009, it waged a devastating three-week long war against an enemy interspersed within a civilian population. Discover how Israel has gradually turned into a quick-tempered military machine, and what the concessions that the country must make in order to achieve true peace are.

Will the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continue to exist as a low intensity conflict with sporadic, very violent outbursts like the current Israeli military intervention in Gaza? The answer is no.