update: the BBC's North American editor Justin Webb has since blogged about this subject here  Reports emanating from Italian sources earlier this week suggesting that the Vatican has effectively vetoed three of President Barack Obama's nominees to fill the vacant role of United States Ambassador to the Holy See--based on their liberal views on issues such as abortion and stem cell research--may signal the beginning of a cooling in US-Vatican relations under the Obama administration.

Biden's speech in Munich suggests Obama's foreign policy is as imprisoned by its circumstances as Bush's

Conservatism's current failings stem from its own tragic nature 

The challenges faced by the new Obama administration in Afghanistan and Pakistan are too big to be tackled alone

Until it hit the headlines after the Mumbai attacks, India did not tend to receive much attention in the international press - at least not as much attention as China, Asia's other major rising power. Even with the Olympics over, China has been the subject of innumerable recent news stories and feature pieces. In noting this, I am not trying to suggest that China gets too much attention; my point is only that India could use a little more. (To this end, openDemocracy has just launched a new editorial section on India, which had been planned for some time.)  In the absence of detailed reporting on India, three images of the country have tended to coexist (somewhat uneasily) in Westerners' imaginations.

A Taliban-al-Qaida regroupment in the Pakistani borderlands is bringing the war closer to Kabul

The United States's global detention policy is incubating the insurgents of the future

George W Bush's administration has unfinished business with Tehran and Baghdad

The way he can win is by avoiding the allure of the conventional wisdom

The end of neocon hegemony could transform the US's profile in Latin America

It will take more than inspirational words to end the conservative ascendancy

What do Americans voters want when they say they want change?

The problem of the lighthouse-beam mode of attention

Once a generation, the US political zeitgeist shifts

One week in Washington exposes the Bush administration's preference for tactics over strategy

The farewell of George W Bush's chief strategist may be only temporary