Dear Readers,

The year-end issue of Diplomatist is undoubtedly comprehensive not only in terms of content but also from the number of pages. The EU-India summit in Marseilles forms our cover story and captures the gravity of the summit supported by a brilliant analysis written by a former foreign secretary of India. The in-depth focus on Czech Republic, the candidate-in-waiting for the next EU Presidency is very much in sync with our cover story.

As we all know, the global banking crisis is the hot issue dominating the global diplomatic discourse; it automatically finds way to all international summits. The IBSA Summit in New Delhi and ASEM in Beijing are no different in this.

Food crisis can be worse than banking crisis. Compounded by the threat of climate change, the global food security is under assault for various reasons. The reasons and solutions are being widely debated in all possible forums. There is no better occasion than World Food Day to ponder deeply about the challenges to food security. The interview with the Country Director of UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) in India is really constructive for its approach to the whole issue.

Standing up to the threat of homogenization of culture from the overriding globalisation is bothering all countries. India and Israel have woken up to this challenge and are jointly initiating some efforts to contain it. There is informative report on a seminar held in Delhi.

The world is watching the pace of preparedness for the Commonwealth Games 2010 being held in New Delhi. Our story looks at the level of preparedness for this mega event and the benefits that can accrue to Delhi’s strained infrastructure. It is further enriched by a report on Commonwealth’ Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma’s visit to Delhi and the views he expressed on the relevance of Commonwealth as a global body. The story on ‘Two nuclear deals’ is an insight into the thriving nuclear diplomacy in Asia.

The interesting articles on exotic tour destinations such as Ajanta and Ellora and the splendid experience of a writer at the sea-washed five-star luxury hotel in Kovalam will surely stimulate the mood of our readers to add new experiences to their lives. So, read on...

G Kalyan Kumar
 kalyan@lbassociates.com