Diplomacy: Scorned No More: It’s A Warm Holiday Season For Dictators

Life's not easy for a rogue—at least, it didn't use to be. Until recently, North Korea, Iran and Libya could all expect regular rhetorical pummeling and military threats from the West. Now, suddenly, change is in the air, and all three states have begun hearing much more moderate language from their old enemies.

The change has been remarkable. Not long ago, Kim Jong Il was being called a "pygmy" by President George W. Bush. Yet in the last few weeks, North Korea—in an indirect "thank you" for the recent nuclear-disarmament deal—got notice that the New York Philharmonic would soon visit Pyongyang, and Bush sent a personal letter to the Dear Leader respectfully addressing him as "Mr. Chairman." Another charter member of the "Axis of Evil," Iran, got its holiday gift in the form of a new U.S. intelligence estimate stating that Tehran had halted its nuclear-weapons program—a report the Iranian president has brandished as vindication for his nation. And in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy became the first Western leader to host former b?te noire Muammar Kaddafi since the 1980s. The Libyan dictator was wined and dined in mid-December, offered lucrative business deals and even allowed to pitch his tent on the grounds of a government guesthouse.

What gives? As usual in the zero-sum world of international diplomacy, the good news for the rogues reflects trouble for Uncle Sam. With the U.S. Army tied up in Iraq and Americans turning virulently antiwar, Washington's lost its favorite weapon for dealing with dangerous outliers, the threat of military force, and is now being shoved onto the diplomatic path. The West is finding that "the rogue-state problems can be kept in check by normal methods short of war and invasion," says Gideon Rose, a terrorism expert and managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine.

Of course, tensions can still flare. Kaddafi's visit to France, for example, was denounced by some of Sarkozy's own cabinet; Human Rights Minister Rama Yade called the trip "scandalous" and a "kiss of death." Kaddafi promptly reciprocated by chiding the French for the injustice and racism with which African immigrants are treated there. But Washington, at least, is remaining upbeat; after all, the Bush administration approved the symphony trip to North Korea a few scant weeks after suspicions were raised that Pyongyang had been secretly funneling nuclear technology to Damascus. Seems the United States is determined not to let anything spoil the holidays.
—Sarah Kliff

Environment: The Solar Sands?
The world is full of half-baked green ideas, and one may be in the oven at the European Parliament. The idea is to harness the intense desert sun, spending €400 billion to build thousands of generators in Africa and the Middle East. A third of the energy would go to Europe via undersea cables, the rest would go to host countries like Jordan or Algeria, two nations that have shown interest. The problem, say critics, is that the steep cost of building facilities and producing solar power put the project outside the realm of financial possibility. "Stupid schemes like this are wasting money and time—and when it comes to tackling climate change, time is something that we don't have," says Jon Gibbins, an energy engineer at Imperial College. The cost of turning the desert solar may be far too steep.
—Jessica Au

Enigmatic Figures: Translation Problems
Who is Dmitry Medvedev? Recently endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to become the next president, the West characterizes him as among the more liberal members of Putin's inner circle— at least more so than the other leading contender, Sergei Ivanov, a former KGB officer close to Kremlin hawks. Though Medvedev, 42, can be expected to continue some of Putin's economic reforms, he is also likely to be weak and under Putin's thumb. Or that's the conventional wisdom. Yet the West has a tough time predicting how Russian leaders will fare. In 2000, many in the West declared Putin to be an apparatchik, loyal to his patron, Boris Yeltsin, who would pursue a free-market liberal agenda. In 2001 George W. Bush declared he saw a "straightforward man" he could "trust." In part, this tendency to overestimate the liberal credentials of new Russian rulers represents the triumph of optimism over experience. Almost all of Russia's rulers follow a similar trajectory: they begin as energetic reformers but become reactionaries.