In the Issue

• China and the Changing Global Order
• The World Needs Principled US Leadership
• WMD Controls Could Benefit the Developing World
• February Made Me Shiver
• American Foreign Policy Shifts Gears

Features

China and the Changing Global Order. Across politics, economics, culture, military strength, and more, a new group of countries has growing influence over the future of the world. China is one of nine countries the Stanley Foundation sees shaping the global scene. Learn more about China's influential role in international affairs and the challenges it faces as a rising power. This article is part of a series related to the Stanley Foundation effort "Rising Powers: The New Global Reality."

The World Needs Principled US Leadership. What the world needs most from the new Obama administration is for the US to resume its role as a "solid citizen" of the international community, argues Stanley Foundation foreign policy expert David Shorr in a recent op-ed in The Des Moines Register. Shorr states that the US can return to a position of significant political influence by reclaiming the moral high ground on issues such as nuclear nonproliferation, the handling of accused terrorists, and global climate change.

WMD Controls Could Benefit the Developing World. Today, as innovation, production, and distribution have gone global, so too has the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Wealthy governments increasingly speak of proliferation dangers emanating from or fostered by weak controls in developing nations. A new project report  from the Stanley Foundation and the Stimson Center finds that UN Resolution 1540 offers perhaps the best hope of bridging the growing divide between the haves and have-nots and between security conscious nations and the developing world. 

Beyond the Headlines

February Made Me Shiver. As rhetoric heats up over an economic stimulus package to save the US economy, so too does our earth continue to warm. But climate change, more accurately termed than "global warming," does not simply mean an increase in the earth's temperature. It also accounts for weather changes across the globe, including snowier winters, and variations in wind patterns that affect plant migration. The Stanley Foundation's home base of Muscatine, Iowa, like much of the Midwest and East Coast of the US, was struck by a bitter cold spell last month. London came to a halt due to unprecedented snowfall. While the debate still wages as to whether or not climate change is happening, many scientists are saying it is likely to affect our temperature gauges and sea levels even more. A recent study by Johns Hopkins University concluded that our ozone, too, is bound to take an additional hit, with tangible impacts including higher rates of skin cancer. On a more positive note, a new McKinsey and Company report outlines the minimum that needs to be done in order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change in a cost-effective manner. On the world stage, what is said to be an ambitious agenda for world leaders in Copenhagen at the end of the year will be a major test of whether countries can come together to find solutions in the next treaty on climate change after Kyoto.

American Foreign Policy Shifts Gears. Not yet a month into the new administration, many in the world feel an ally has been reborn in the US. At an annual international security conference in Munich, Vice President Joe Biden "set a new tone" for US foreign policy. President Obama's first media interview with Al Arabiya enunciated America's new role as listener. The president's campaign pledge to close the detainment center at Guantanamo Bay was realized less than a day after he took office, although many details are yet to come. As for what the rest of the world is thinking about this historic shift in Washington, a recent 17-country survey conducted by the BBC World Service finds widespread and growing optimism that Obama's presidency will lead to improved relations between the US and the rest of the world. Regional reactions to the new American president range from hopeful optimism to shrewd skepticism and the understanding that many have placed extraordinarily high hopes on a single individual.