Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
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To dismiss Medvedev as a mere Putin puppet would be a mistake; Medvedev was chosen to recruit an internet savvy and generally more liberal Russian constituency to the Kremlin’s program of conservative modernization.
Assertions that "Yemen is tomorrow's war" are unhelpful; while Yemen will not replace South Asia as the central front in the war on terror, it is nevertheless a critical state of concern that will require long-term attention to target the sources of its instability.
The United States has not convinced allies of its resolve to make extended deterrence credible. A new, effective strategy of communicating U.S. resolve must disentangle the concepts of capabilities and resolve while engaging more closely with allies.
Lebanon’s domestic and regional politics remained relatively calm in 2009, but with Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm and Syria’s continuing determination to ferry arms into Lebanon, the nation lacks full sovereignty and remains vulnerable to sudden shocks.
Civil war, terrorism, a deepening secessionist movement, and economic and demographic trends threaten to overpower the Yemeni government, destabilize the region, and provide a breeding ground for terrorists who will mount operations across the Arabian Peninsula and internationally.
On a global stage, losers of the decade include the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, who are suffering from violence, poverty, and extremism. Global winners include Google, J.K. Rowling, and Hugo Chavez, who has proven more resilient than expected in surviving both his opponents and his own misdeeds.
Although Putin has the coercive power of the state firmly in hand, Medvedev plays an important role in the governance of Russia, and his appeal to a younger, generally liberal demographic is key to the Kremlin’s goal of conservative modernization.
The rise of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula inside of Yemen comes at a time when the central government is threatened by a failing economy, a water shortage, a growing population, high unemployment, and civil war.
Before China can move from being a great power to a superpower, it will have to overcome a number of economic, political, environmental, and regional challenges, from low per capita income and an aging and primarily rural population to the threat of ethnic secessionism.
A new procedure in Russia’s gubernatorial elections that allows the party dominating the regional legislature to nominate gubernatorial candidates only perpetuates the worst problems of the previous system of appointments.