Word: diplomatic
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Diplomatically, China began laying down public markers in advance of this December's U.N. summit on climate change in Copenhagen, which activists hope will succeed where Kyoto failed: getting governments to agree on enforceable reductions in carbon emissions. Earlier this summer, Beijing said it would commit to outright reductions of its CO2 emissions more than 40 years from now - by the year 2050. That two-generation time frame, which disappointed some critics, reflects a central reality in China. A lot of its leaders (not to mention its citizens) are deeply distrustful of the extreme rhetoric coming from the West...
...Indeed, leadership on climate change may be shifting to the East. Hu emphasized that China's economic policies would continue to promote the country's rapid development, and it isn't clear just how ambitious China's emissions cuts will be. As Todd Stern, the U.S.'s top climate diplomat, told reporters on Tuesday: "It all depends on what the numbers will be." But from the outside, it looks like China is forging ahead while the U.S. remains mired in domestic politics. "The question is whether [China] will prompt Obama and the Senate into action before Copenhagen," says Annie Petsonk...
Getting E.U. endorsement presents a herculean challenge because the Union makes decisions on a consensus basis that effectively gives any one of its 27 member states a veto. And one senior European diplomat points out that some E.U. member states are domestically constrained from imposing sanctions except those that have been authorized by U.N. resolutions. That means that a Russian or Chinese veto of new sanctions measures at the Security Council could actually prevent Germany from signing on. And Russia is hardly looking flexible. Foreign Minister Lavrov reiterated Russia's opposition to new sanctions Sept. 17, even after...
...Qaeda ally, was killed in a remote part of South Waziristan. Mehsud's death has sown discord among his followers, with the new leader struggling to maintain control of the increasingly fractious alliance. The tribal areas "can no longer be described as a safe haven," says a senior Western diplomat with approval...
...also be needed in any attempt to boost civilian control over Pakistan's all-powerful military. Although on paper Zardari is the "supreme commander of the armed forces" and the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency reports to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, these are what one senior Western diplomat describes as "constitutional fictions." Under General Ashfaq Kayani, the army has resisted intervening directly in politics, but has repeatedly asserted its clout through backstage maneuvers...