Readers should be prepared for a recurring sense of deja vu in the year ahead. Few of the problems that dominated international affairs in 2006 were resolved. The headline issues that absorbed decision makers will continue to demand time and attention in 2007. There is little hope for resolution as neither the conditions that created these problems nor the individuals entrusted with solving them have changed.
Expect the governments in Pyongyang and Tehran to continue to work the seams of the international community, finding and exploiting differences among key nations, defying world opinion and marching closer to nuclear-weapons state status. Palestinians and Israelis will dig deeper into their positions -- when Palestinians and their supporters are not fighting among themselves -- and may convince yet more observers (and growing numbers of their own populations) that real peace is unachievable and that this rage is best left to burn itself out rather than be fought and contained by diplomacy and negotiation.
In Africa, genocide will continue in Darfur as other nations stand idly by. It is an absurdity of modern life that celebrity adoptions of African children seem to win more international attention than governments' efforts to end wholesale slaughter.