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Both the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Chancellor Kohl of West Germany have made trips to Tibet recently as part of their visits to mainland China. Since he was the first political leader to travel to the region, Kohl's visit attracted a great deal of international attention. The author discusses Peking's alarm over Western views of Tibet's international status. Peking hopes that these visits will demonstrate Western recognition of the legitimacy of its rule in Tibet. (DÜI-Sen)

China saw its international profile raised further in 2009, largely due to its success in weathering the global economic crisis. It also assumed more responsibilities such as fighting global climate change, helping the world economy recover and tackling international piracy. China's relations with its key partners like the US, EU, Japan and ASEAN have made positive progress. While getting more involved in world issues, China is likely to be selective in terms of its extent of involvement. (East Asian Pol/GIGA)

"Environmental problems have always been part of our history, of life, and work. Yet the way in which environmental problems are perceived and politicized has changed: If it was at first chiefly local and regional environmental problems that were recognized, in recent years global environmental problems that have been a major cause of concern. Global problems can be tackled only by means of an internationally coordinated, global environmental policy, local and regional environmental policies have to be integrated into this context. Global environmental policy has meanwhile become a highly dynamic policy field. The first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm 1972) is generally regarded as its starting point. Since then a good number of environmental accords, both national and bilateral, but, in numerous cases, also multilateral and global, have been signed. The efforts undertaken thus far are, however, not comprehensive enough, and they do not appear to be sufficient. So there is still a wide policy-implementation gap between ongoing environmental degradation and the environmental agreements that have been agreed upon and the compliance record that can be noted for them. This skeptical balance is, however, not without some positive aspects on the credit side: Recent years have seen the negotiation of new global environmental conventions, and already existing accords have been specified through implementation protocols. However, further efforts are needed to mould effective regulatory instruments out of the given environmental agreements. Direct as well as indirect instruments should be used toward that end. Furthermore, it would be essential to start restructuring environmental policy within the United Nations system and to look into the feasibility of establishing a new World Environment and Development Organization." (excerpt)

Following the disintegration of the socialist system in Europe and the end of the bloc-based relations, American politics has changed the course of its operation. In present-day circumstances, Southeastern Europe is becoming increasingly prominent in American foreign-policy projections, particularly during Clinton's administration. Clinton has defined a clear-cut policy towards Europe's southeast due to its vicinity to certain neuralgic points of American engagement (Near East, the Caspian region, the Gulf, eastern Mediterranean). In this way American politics has proved its leading global role. At the time of scarcity of foreign-policy events, Clinton's team has thus been served on a platter a major foreign-policy arena, in which its engagement - which has all the symptoms of a long-lasting one - has not proved too costly. (SOI : PM: S. 20)