Russia attempts to come back to life by playing with the strength of its two geo-strategical instruments: oil and natural gas.

Find out why the crisis in South Ossetia has constituted a tough international setback for Russia and the Slavophile and pro-Oriental positions that the new president Medvedev and his prime minister Putin defend. However, should Europe expect some type retaliation by Moscow in terms of energy?

The annual purchasing power of the Hispanic community in the United States exceeds 830 billion dollars, but only 21 out of the 535 congressmen in both houses of Congress are Latino. The economic crisis, education and the failed immigration reform are among the complaints that Hispanics have for the next president. Their vote counts, and the principal candidates cannot avoid this fact: Latinos could define the elections.

• A breath of fresh air for relations between the U.S. and Latin America?
  por

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.

As its neighboring giants India and China continue to make significant inroads into the global economy, the still charter-less ASEAN is mired in integration problems and struggling to forge a single market. The author points to a disparity in the amount of foreign direct investments received by the member states, as well as the weak trade within the association, as possible reasons for the association’s heretofore failure to integrate.

• Southeast Asia reduces poverty, but increases inequality
  por

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
• The dispute for African Oil
  por

Now that Pervez Musharraf has finally resigned as Pakistan’s president, the author analyzes his legacy, and attempts to pick apart the unstable coalition currently ruling Pakistan. Read on to discover why the Pakistani people gradually turned against a man they initially trusted, and why a poor civilian government is always better than a poor military one.

• Islamabad’s Next Steps
  por
• Assessing the creation of the new civilian government in Pakistan
  por

The European companies with the greatest number of women in leadership positions show above average returns, as evidenced by Ericsson or Nokia. So why is the sex ratio so disproportionate in positions of responsibility in the political and business fields? Would the European Union work better with more female leadership?

Hezbolah is attempting to get its point across in Lebanon through violence and has decided to abandon its low-intensity strategy of taking hostages and waiting, which it had employed up until now. The delivery of the corpses of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in exchange for Lebanese and Palestinian corpses and prisoners boosts Hezbolah’s image in the eyes of the Arab world, says the author. Read and find out why.

• Is a Comprehensive Middle Eastern Peace Possible?
  por