English

The aim of this article is to cast light on the positive processes of south-Asian economic integration. It is divided into two principal parts. The first one is intended to describe the state of economic cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan focusing on the new transit trade agreement and on its capabilities to turn these two countries into a fundamental junction of the south-Asian trade. The second one concerns regional integration’s projects with a special focus on the energy field, which could result in the building of physical links in terms of gas and oil pipelines throughout the south-central Asian continent as well as in the satisfaction of the growing energy needs of countries like India and Pakistan. These two sections will be followed by a conclusion in which I’ll try to sum up the current state of the integration, underlining the weaknesses of this process and the main obstacles that it has to face.

Tuesday, 14th December have been rejected the two no-confidence motions (one in the senate, or upper house, one in the chamber of deputies) against the Berlusconi government. The no-confidence motions were submitted by the two main opposition parties, but the leader of the revolt is Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the chamber and former main ally of Berlusconi. Fini, who was the co-founder of the centre-right party PdL (The People of Freedom, Italian: Il Popolo della Libertà), together with Berlusconi, and allied with Lega Nord in the government, is known for his strongly pro-American and pro-Israel views.

Yes to nuclear power. More than a slogan. In Italy this appears to be a declaration of war right now. Yet, this is the...

The Russian counteroffensive has brought some political advantages to Moscow , though a small deferment in closing the operations might have optimized them. First of all, Saakashvili has been destabilized: he will have to bear responsibility for having set off a conflict they have ruinously lost, even if he will try to politically optimize the “victim” aura. Secondly, the US’ prestige—and secondly EU’s one —has endured remarkable backlashes in the region. Today facts have showed how much the balance of military power in the Caucasus leans undoubtedly towards Moscow. Moscow’s third success lies in putting off Georgia’s admission to the NATO. If Georgia had been a NATO member, today Europe and the US should have either engaged in the third world war or lost their face before the whole world. Reason for which Georgia’s entrance in the NATO has always been dependent on settling the Abkhazian and Ossetian problems. Now more than ever these problems are serious and their possible consequences obvious.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE «Russia and Europe: Topical Issues of Contemporary International Journalism» Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry and Federal Communications Agency are organizing a conference, «Russia and Europe:...

The geopolitical history of the Arctic can be divided, in a preliminary approximation, into at least three cycles. A first great cycle, which we can call the cycle of great exploration and of the initial Arctic maritime activity (maritimisation) can be defined starting around 1553, that is, when the English navigator Hugh Willoughby began searching for a North-East passage, and going to the second half of the 1820s. With the new entrant in the circum-polar navigation club, frictions arose that marked the successive phase of the geopolitical history of the Arctic. This is the cycle of sovereignty or territorial claims, which began in 1826 with the delimitation of the frontier and terminated in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR. The third cycle, which we can define as Arctic regional identity or multilateralism, placed between 1990 and the first years of this century, is marked by Moscow’s slight commitment – geopolitically fallen back into itself after the collapse of soviet structure – in supporting its own regional interests, by the renewed tensions between Canada and the US, by the timid presence of the European Union, which states the so-called policy of the Nordic Dimension, and, in particular, by some international or multilateral initiatives.

Issue 3/2010 of the review of Geopolitics “Eurasia”, entitled USA: HEGEMONY AND DECLINE, has been released. This 288-page volume contains 24 articles about the USA, a still-hegemonic power in decline, on the scene of the transition from unipolarism to the new multipolarist order. Here follows a list and a short synthesis of each article.

Natella Speranskaya has interviewed the editor-in-chief of “Eurasia. Rivista di studi geopolitici”, Claudio Mutti, about the “Theory of a multipolar world”. An international conference about this theme has been organized by the Eurasian Movement at the State University in Moscow (April, 25th-26th, 2012). Here the questions of N. Speranskaya and the answers of C. Mutti.

In the new multipolar structure, fully in the consolidation phase, Africa risks becoming, for economic and geostrategic reasons, the stakes between the western system, led by the US, and the Euro-Asiatic powers, Russia, China and India. In order to prevent and block that possibility, and especially to take on a decisive global in the medium and long term, the continental integration of Africa represents a need and a challenge which the African ruling classes are urgently called to answer. Such integration must probably be configured on a regional basis, following three principal lines: from the Mediterranean, from the Indian Ocean and from the Atlantic Ocean.

 Abstract Connections between Maghreb and Europe are long period and multifaceted. Different elements can show this point: the Mediterranean Sea as a shared space where...