JUNE/JULY 2012

Contents

Cover story

Features

Regulars

Earth Summit Rio+ must address the scramble for resources Bernice Lee Summits in a leaderless world Ian Bremmer Finance takes the lead on sustainable economy Nick Robins China’s Greener shoots need nurturing Isabel Hilton What will make Brits vote Green? Jenny Jones Mihir Bose Forget the Corinthian spirit, the Olympics are all about money Paul Mason It’s August –—–˜ all over again in Europe UK riots Tottenham will rise again David Lammy

How to stop London burning this summer Nigel Hall and Cat Tully Europe Germany’s ž trillion lesson Heribert Dieter

The return of tyranny to Ukraine Orysia Lutsevych Stats US electorate in figures Interview: Carl Bildt Austerity or growth is a false debate.

The first is necessary to achieve the second Middle East Why is Putin protecting Assad’s regime?

Talal Nizameddin ¤ years on, Palestinians in Lebanon need civil rights Dr Swee Chai Ang Focus Democracy NGOs under attack around the world

Nicolas Bouchet Soft power India is winning against China Shashi Tharoor

China sends its treasures around the world Sally Peck ƒ Zimbabwe Mugabe’s last throw of the dice

Graham Boynton ƒ Letters on China, Mario Monti and Syria ‡ Notebook by Evgeny Lebedev Š A date with history the Watergate break-in ‡ Postcard from… Buenos Aires Ten minutes with… Yossi Beilin ƒƒ Jargonbuster finds dashboards in unlikely places ƒ Books Michael Williams on Anthony Shadid’s

House of Stone Hugh Pope on Orhan Pamuk’s fantasy museum Michela Wrong’s reading list: Congo and Rwanda ‡ ‡ myths about… Green living Cover by Jason Ford

From the Editor

Eighteen European summits over the past two years, and still no one has got a grip on the euro crisis. Summits used to be carefully choreographed affairs where leaders excelled at papering over their differences. No more. The differences between France and Germany are on display for all to see.

It would be easy to conclude that the world is now uniquely out of control, with the leaders mere shadows flitting across the stage. But that would be nostalgia for a bygone age which never actually existed. In –——¤, at the height of Western triumphalism after the end of the Cold War, the US had to retreat from Somalia. As Europe proclaimed itself a global power, it flunked its first great test, the break-up of Yugoslavia, leading to – years of war in the Balkans.

The leaders of the past were not all giants. Still, with America laden with debt and distacted by an election campaign, and with economic power being distributed more evenly around the world, it is undeniably harder to achieve success in multilateral forums.

Our cover story looks ahead to the Rio+ conference, a follow-up to the seminal Earth Summit of –—— . As Bernice Lee writes on page °, the issues are daunting. The global struggle for resources is only going to get more intense. The world needs to embrace a more collaborative approach to resource policy before serious progress is made on sustainable development.

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Rio+ is thus unlikely to break the run of limp summits. But it can still serve a purpose. It will be a forum for campaigners to exchange ideas with the worlds of business and finance, to see where capital should be best deployed and whose technology will dominate the new Green industries. Alan Philps