POLITICS-US: Pentagon Reaffirms Globocop Role

March has been a bad month for the world's multilateralists who, encouraged by several early appointments to the State Department and a successful presidential tour of Europe, had hoped that George W. Bush would temper his unilateralist instincts in his second term.

POLITICS-US: Unipolarity Re-Affirmed

Just one week ago, conventional wisdom both here and in European capitals was that President George W. Bush's second term would see a modest turn toward multilateralism and a new readiness to compromise on key issues with traditional U.S. allies.

POLITICS-US: Bush Appoints Right-Wing Extremist to UN Post

In a breathtaking victory for right-wing hawks, U.S. President George W. Bush has nominated Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton to become his next ambassador to the United Nations.

POLITICS: U.S. on Sidelines of Yet Another Global Treaty

Eleven days after the Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming entered into force despite staunch opposition from the George W. Bush administration, another international treaty, this one on tobacco, will take effect Sunday without U.S. ratification.

DISARMAMENT-U.S.: The Nuclear Domino Effect

Even as the United States leans on North Korea and Iran to renounce any nuclear objectives, peace activists say it has stepped up spending on its own arsenal, including investments in a new generation of longer lasting and sturdier ''bunker buster'' weapons.

DISARMAMENT-U.S.: The Nuclear Domino Effect

Even as the United States leans on North Korea and Iran to renounce any nuclear objectives, peace activists say it has stepped up spending on its own arsenal, including investments in a new generation of longer lasting and sturdier ''bunker buster'' weapons.

POLITICS-US: Hawk-Realist Impasse Could Persist in Second Term

With the pomp and circumstance of the inaugural and the State of the Union address now out of the way, the foreign policy direction to be taken by President George W. Bush in his second term remains a subject of considerable speculation and uncertainty.

POLITICS-U.S.: Bush’s Delicate Dilemma on Darfur

If U.S. President George W. Bush wants to show the world, particularly the European Union, a more multilateralist face in his second term, a special United Nations commission of inquiry that has been investigating war crimes in Darfur, Sudan is about to hand him a golden opportunity.

POLITICS: Bush Bad for Global Peace, US Image, World Believes

As George W. Bush prepares to be sworn in for his second term as U.S. president, a strong majority of the world's people are concerned his tenure is likely to produce more setbacks to the cause of world peace and security, according to a major international poll released Wednesday.

POLITICS-U.S.: Voters Hope for Softer, Gentler Second Term

If U.S. President George W. Bush steers his foreign policy in a more multilateralist direction, he will have strong support from both Republican and Democratic voters for doing so, according to a new survey and analysis based on several major polls on foreign-policy attitudes conducted over the last six months.

POLITICS-U.S.: So Little Time, So Many Regimes to Change

The interregnum between November's election and the formal launch in January of U.S. President George W Bush's second term has a strange feel.

POLITICS: U.S. Attacks Global Court as its Soldiers Sanctioned

The United States is poised to punish some of its closest friends overseas for supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a growing number of its soldiers are being sanctioned for abusing prisoners in the "war on terrorism," said U.S. human rights groups Wednesday.

POLITICS: U.N. Chief Rejects U.S. Calls To Resign

Buoyed by strong endorsements from western and African leaders, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has refused to cave into demands by conservative U.S. forces seeking his premature ouster from office.

POLITICS: South Backs Beleaguered U.N. Chief

The largest political group at the United Nations is expected to pledge its ''strong support'' to beleaguered U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose resignation is being demanded by right-wing newspapers and neo-conservative politicians in the United States.

POLITICS: U.N. Needs Radical Change, Says Panel

The 191-member United Nations, which plans to celebrate its 60th anniversary next September, is urgently in need of radical change, rehabilitation and rejuvenation, according to a long-awaited report released Tuesday.

U.S.: Congress Pushes Penalties for Global Court Support

U.S. allies in the developing South are now being targeted by lawmakers here, who have already meted out punishment to nations that support the new International Criminal Court (ICC).

POLITICS-SUDAN: Africa’s Longest Civil War Set to Conclude by End of Year

The Sudanese government and rebels from the south of the country pledged Friday to end their 21-year conflict by Dec. 31. This came during a two-day meeting of the United Nations Security Council in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

POLITICS-U.S.: Don’t Count Out Realists Yet

While after a week of personnel announcements conventional wisdom appears to have concluded that the foreign policy of President George W Bush's second term will be at least if not more radical than the first, there is also a minority view that such a conclusion is premature.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Time is of the Essence for Darfur, Says Annan

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for a speedy conclusion to peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and southern rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army. He said this was central to resolving another conflict in the country – that in the western region of Darfur.

POLITICS-U.S.: Hawks Flying High With Rice Posting

U.S. President George W Bush's nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to replace Secretary of State Colin Powell consolidates the control over U.S. foreign policy of the coalition of hawks that promoted the war in Iraq, led by Vice President Dick Cheney.

POLITICS: Unilateralism Threatens U.S. Role in Asia

In a major review of U.S. relations with Asia, two high-profile task forces are urging the Bush administration to pay significantly more attention to the region and adopt a less unilateralist posture in its dealings there.