Thousands of Burmese citizens, lead by Buddhist monks, have forced a beastial dictatorship into check. Images of the protests and of their consequent repression have exposed before the international public a detestable regime, and citizens whose struggle for liberty and democracy should be a reference for the modern world.

• From Gen. Pervez Musharraf to Mr. Pervez Musharraf
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• Pakistan: General Musharraf’s Election Bid, the Supreme Court Verdict and Public Protests
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• Contemporary Political Developments in South Asia
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For the benefit of all of its citizens, Latin America should leave behind the ideas of regressive utopias, and that of the cold war confrontation, in order to search for and take the path which is neither leftist nor rightist, but rather centrist. Progress and modernity are not in the extremes; in reality, they never were.

• The Globalization of Brazil
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The populists tend to enlarge the group of contemporary non-liberal democracies. The author points out that t is not strange that within a single, caudillo-style leadership that claims to act in the name of the people (pueblo) and for the people, political rights and freedoms, like the freedom of the press, freedom of expression, the plural-party system, and the control of electoral processes are suppressed or diminished.

Hugo Chávez must build bridges to the other bank: if the president suffers from arrogance, his adversaries lack the slightest bit of endurance, says the author. If the rise in internal confrontations and the excessive international pressure following the referendum persists, there will be a strong social split. Dialog and internal consensus are missing in the Venezuela of today, and barriers abound, he points out.

While international support for a Two-State solution seems to be promising following the recent summit in Annapolis, a partition of the land west of the river Jordan is not very practical when one takes into account the Israeli settlement policy of the past 30 years, argues the author; he suggests that the solution might lie down a different path: Jews and Arabs alike should learn to renounce their militant ways and, with an internationally backed effort, create an integrated country in which minorities are granted full rights, complete with an educational system that embraces all of the ethnic groups in the area.

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.

A decade has passed since the financial crisis in Southeast Asia and it is apparent that the region today has matured much more since then with regard to the economy and stock market. Politically, there have been advances and regressions, while at the regional level there is power in the idea of strengthening ties for more integration. However, it is still necessary to overcome unresolved matters such as democratic consolidation and the equal distribution of wealth.

Among other topics, relations with Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay and Chile, the reactive gestures and pragmatism with Washington, economic management and the renegotiation of the foreign debt have marked Buenos Aires’ foreign policy during Néstor Kirchner’s term of office. To understand what challenges Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will face in the realm of foreign policy, in this article I take stock of Argentina’s achievements and mistakes during the period of 2003–2007.