Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

A number of thoughtful observers have expressed puzzlement in recent months about financial markets’ perceptions of risk. While markets have judged today’s world  – especially the dollar and securities linked to it – to have low risk when viewed in historical perspective, geopolitical risks in fact appear to be large.

Over the last few years, my input to any discussions on "how would we know if this feared big crash is on us" was "when the Dow falls more than 300 in one day". Soon we'll know if I was right.

"The fundamental problem with the ICJ’s decision is its unrealistically high standard of proof for finding Serbia to have been legally complicit in genocide.": Antonio Cassese, the first President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

"Health care research over the next decade will integrate advances in biology, material sciences, and chemical and bioengineering to create a revolutionary new generation of medical devices and drug delivery systems. The main challenge facing researchers in these diverse fields may be a shortage of adequate interdisciplinary training.": Robert Langer

From the end of February 2007, Webdiary will no longer be publishing articles sourced from Project Syndicate, including those from Joseph E Stiglitz. Subsequent articles in Professor Stiglitz's I Dissent: Unconventional Economic Wisdom series can be accessed via the Project Syndicate site here.

From the end of February 2007, Webdiary will no longer be publishing articles sourced from Project Syndicate, including those from Peter Singer. Subsequent articles in Professor Singer's The Ethics of Life series can be accessed via the Project Syndicate site here.

From the end of February 2007, Webdiary will no longer be publishing articles sourced from Project Syndicate, including those from Jeffrey Sachs. Subsequent articles in Professor Sach's Economics and Justice series can be accessed via the Project Syndicate site here.

From the end of February 2007, Webdiary will no longer be publishing articles sourced from Project Syndicate, including those from Kenneth Rogoff. Subsequent articles in Professor Rogoff's The Unbound Economy series can be accessed via the Project Syndicate site here.

From the end of February 2007, Webdiary will no longer be publishing articles sourced from Project Syndicate, including those from Ralf Dahrendorf. Subsequent articles in Lord Dahrendorf's Against the Current series can be accessed via the Project Syndicate site here.

From the end of February 2007, Webdiary will no longer be publishing articles sourced from Project Syndicate, including those from Joseph S Nye. Subsequent articles in Professor Nye's Of Might and Right series can be accessed via the Project Syndicate site here.

"The ultimate challenge is to prevent drug abuse and to treat and rehabilitate drug users successfully. Sweden is a good example of how to do it right. Drug use there is a third of the European average – the result of decades of consistent policies that combine tough punishment of dealers and comprehensive treatment for users.": Antonio Maria Costa, UN Office on Drugs and Crime

For politicians in persistent denial about the need to act, including US President George W. Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, there is no longer any place to hide.

"Rural protectionism in rich countries seems to have killed the Doha Round – and, with it, potentially the whole multilateral trading regime.": Malcolm Cook, Lowy Institute

As long as it continues to hold and abuse prisoners without giving them a fair trial, America’s professed ideals will continue to sound to the rest of the world like the deepest hypocrisy.

The latest update from the Democratic Audit of Australia program at ANU on how our democracy is working.

Informal learning implies a messy, unruly, and potentially subversive process. But it also promises to nurture the creative ferment in which great science thrives.

China’s courtship of resource-rich Third World tyrannies and its recent step toward the weaponization of outer space undermines its carefully crafted new image as a paragon of “harmonious” social development. So to continue to give China “exceptional” treatment given today’s Chinese behavior will undermine its ability to become a nation capable of exercising responsible global leadership.

What is at stake is not protecting domestic producers, but protecting our planet. The changing climate on climate change provides political leaders in Europe and other potential members of this “coalition of the willing” an unprecedented opportunity to move beyond mere rhetoric. The time to act is now.

I reckon what Brown's tried to do is put a cat among the pigeons. He's trying to put a bomb under the unspoken underlying issues here, the collective delusion that's seeing us destroy the planet's capacity to sustain us as a species. No one mainstream is game. Brown has thrown up a real radical one, in the hope that we might finally get to some of those issues.

Faced with uncertainty about the future of liberal democracy in Russia, how should western countries respond? This question is particularly difficult for the Bush administration, which is torn between the president’s early endorsement of Putin and his pro-democracy agenda.

I have been mulling over a question or two. 'What if ...' questions. They are future focused, solution focused questions that ask what if we could do something. What if we could work through a problem together?

Many people have been asking why the dollar hasn’t crashed yet. Will the United States ever face a bill for the string of massive trade deficits that it has been running for more than a decade?

Privileges of Australian Citizens: It entitles you to: ... seek assistance from Australian diplomatic representatives while overseas ... - but, not, it seems, to actually receive that assistance once you seek it.

Can using US funding to reopen Iraqi state-owned enterprises get young men to abandon the insurgency and sectarian militias?

Australia joined most of the world during the last quarter of the last century by becoming ethnically diverse in its population base. Is this a good thing for those who had to experience such a vast change?

Lao has had a low level insurgency since 1975 when the Pathet Lao took government. But that might be about to wind down.