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
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• What Does the Increase of Food Prices Imply for the World?
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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
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• Climate Change Hits the Poorest, Hardest
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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
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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.

Food increases because of the change in climate; the major revenue of emerging economies like China and India; the growing demand for biofuel and speculation, states the author. Find out what will happen in the next few years and what can be done to avoid the hunger of millions of people.

While some proclaim that the Internet has brought knowledge to within everyone’s reach, there are others who believe that technology has amplified the distance between the rich and the poor, between the digitally literate and the citizens without access to the knowledge that the Internet makes available. Be that as it may, the author believes that social networks like Facebook allow for interaction and the spread of knowledge and access to more information, and they constitute a valuable opportunity to bridge the digital gaps.

The origin and expansion of think tanks on a global level: does it have to do with civil society’s greater level of involvement in governmental duties, or, on the contrary, is it a response to the crisis of representation in political parties? Do they act as bridges between the rulers and the citizens, or as a new, elitist model where the experts substitute those politicians branded as demagogues and populists that are in power. To follow: the first part of an analysis of the impact and transcendence of think tanks in current cyber-democracies.

One of the quandaries facing terrorism analysts today: the jihadist’s dilemma of whether to promote collective or individual action among potential adherents. Although this may appear to be an obscure issue, so specific as to interest only counterterrorism analysts, it is actually a widely applicable and underappreciated topic that could directly impact the type of terrorism Europe may face in the future. As such, it is a concern for all.