STWR - Share The World's Resources

The United Nations is failing in its duty to control the abuses of transnational economic power, argues Alejandro Teitelbaum. The recent report by John Ruggie, special representative of the UN Secretary-General on business and human rights, represents a setback in attempts to establish international control over the activities of transnational corporations.

This is the world in 30 years' time envisaged by a Ministry of Defence team responsible for painting a picture of the "future strategic context" likely to face Britain's armed forces. It includes an "analysis of the key risks and shocks". Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the MoD's Development, Concepts & Doctrine Centre which drew up the report, describes the assessments as "probability-based, rather than predictive".

13th March 07 - Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service

6th March 07 - Carol Estes, Yes! Magazine

In 1948, before the ink was dry on the new Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the United States was backing away from its commitment—particularly to economic human rights.

George Kennan, then head of the State Department’s policy planning staff, wrote, “We have about 50 percent of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3 percent of the world’s population. Our real task in the coming period is … to maintain this position of disparity. … We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world--benefaction. … The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”

Although Kennan was talking specifically about the Far East, he articulated a widely held set of assumptions that shaped both domestic and foreign policy in the United States for the next 60 years. But are they true? Are they correct in the practical, factual sense? Are they right in the moral sense?

5th March 07 - Daniel Drezner, Foreign Affairs

Throughout the twentieth century, the list of the world's great powers was predictably short: the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, and northwestern Europe. The twenty-first century will be different. China and India are emerging as economic and political heavyweights: China holds over a trillion dollars in hard currency reserves, India's high-tech sector is growing by leaps and bounds, and both countries, already recognized nuclear powers, are developing blue-water navies. The National Intelligence Council, a U.S. government think tank, projects that by 2025, China and India will have the world's second- and fourth-largest economies, respectively. Such growth is opening the way for a multipolar era in world politics.

This tectonic shift will pose a challenge to the U.S.-dominated global institutions that have been in place since the 1940s. At the behest of Washington, these multilateral regimes have promoted trade liberalization, open capital markets, and nuclear nonproliferation, ensuring relative peace and prosperity for six decades -- and untold benefits for the United States. But unless rising powers such as China and India are incorporated into this framework, the future of these international regimes will be uncomfortably uncertain.

Peace activists from across the United States gathered in Washington Saturday for what they said was the largest demonstration to date against the Iraq war.

30th Jan 07 - George Gopal, Kenya London News

As the curtains fell on the World Social Forum (WSF) that was held in Kasarani, Nairobi, It now remains to be seen if the delegates vow to fight inequality and social justice in the world will be achieved.