Spain finds itself at a crucial moment in 2008: the era of spectacular growth that began some fifteen years ago is reaching its peak. It is now time to restructure the economy and lay the foundation for the second transition. To do this, Spain should find new ways to grow by analyzing which sectors it should develop, as a function of its strengths as a country, in accordance with international market opportunities. The author says that it is very important to open up sectors that, through clusters, add a lot of gross value, just as successful countries like Israel and Ireland did.

These years are decisive: the manner in which the main ecological problems (global warming, deforestation, erosion, soil desertification, the extinction of animal and plant species and the dearth of fresh water) are resolved (or not) will determine the quality of life of future generations. There are countries that have already rolled up their sleeves and gotten to work, but others (such as the United States, Australia and Spain) continue to practice the ostrich strategy; in other words, they hide behind mere rhetoric.

• Environmental lobbies in the United States
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• The Impact of Climate change in Africa
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It does not make sense to think that the national interests safeguard can be guaranteed with measures that have exclusively national jurisdiction. Colombia will not be successful against FARC if its members find refuge on the other side of the border (which does not exempt Bogotá from having to ask Ecuador for complete forgiveness). Latin America will only achieve domestic and foreign security with a common and coordinated effort. Here is how.

Moving beyond the lessons that the nationalist parties and the communist left (IU) should take home from their loss of votes to the PSOE, the only statement that is valid today is that the general elections in Spain have only one winner: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Even if the PP has increased its presence in parliament, today it constitutes more opposition than it did four years ago. Mariano Rajoy’s strategists have failed.

• The harmful convergence of politics in Spain
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• The electoral contest intensifies in Spain
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After days of a military offensive against the Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, Turkey consented to withdraw its troops, in what appears to be a strategy to gain Washington’s trust and ensure that Ankara will have the possibility to carry out new, characteristically similar offensives (limited in scope and duration) in the near future. However, the Kurdish question will not be resolved until Turkey changes its mentality and puts policy before force when making decisions related to national security, states the author.

The escalating tension between Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela is as incredible as it is dangerous. The shaky international community cannot allow an armed conflict to break out in the Andes region, or even a new focal point of tension in the American continent. Rhetoric can turn into drama, states the author.

Regarding the several approaching appointments with the ballot boxes (Spain, Italy, the United States, and municipalities in France), the author analyzes the democratic components common to the several campaigns. Using the American model and the current political involvement of its citizenry, he reminds the readers that a party system is far from being a summation of apparatuses; rather, the system responds to a dynamic in which each strong force talks to, competes with, and confronts the other.

• The Italian elections: "Obama versus McCain"… Roman style
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• The harmful convergence of politics in Spain
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• Barack versus "Billary"
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The Middle East is experiencing a new escalation in the violence between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants. According to the analysts, the only way out involves the reestablishment of a framework for global negotiation between the Israeli authorities and the Palestinian factions of the West Bank and Gaza, an option that could lead to the creation of another National Unity Government, provided that an agreement is reached beforehand. But in order for this to happen, the author states that Israel must renounce its project of getting rid of Hamas by force.

• Alert before the Unreasonableness of Hamas
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The supporters of Taiwanese independence consider Kosovo to be a precedent that encourages them not to give up in their struggle. Nevertheless, the differences between the two cases are obvious, and not only due to the democratic imperative necessary to constitute a state; neither the origin of the dispute nor the regional and international context of the two cases is similar either. This is why the consequences of Kosovo’s independence will probably be felt more in the South Caucasus (Transcaucasia) or Europe rather than in the Far East, states the author.

• The Kosovan State is unviable
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• Kosovo´s final status: another chapter of turmoil in the Balkans?
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• China-Taiwan: Playing with...the Torch
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