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.

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.

Will the agreements that come out of Annapolis truly be implemented? Recent history demonstrates that Israelis as well as Palestinians have wielded arguments posterior to those that spoiled the achieved approximations. What will happen if the Summit in Annapolis fails?

Kosovo’s independence is inevitable, given the failure of multiethnicism in the Balkans, the overwhelming support it has amongst Kosovars, and the fact that Serbia’s grip upon the region is currently only nominal, argues the author. He suggests that the EU should play a more important role in mediating the conflict and attempt to implement the main parts of the Ahtisaari Plan. At the same time, caution must be exercised, so as to avoid a crisis with Serbia or Russia, as well as a repeat of the gruesome violence that gripped the region during the 1990s.