The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, will be held in Rio de Janeiro from June 20-22 to assess the implementation of the resolutions of the Earth Summit of 1992, writes Don de Silva, a journalist, environmentalist, and communications specialist.

The deficit of fresh water is becoming increasingly severe and widespread. Unlike other resources, there is no substitute for water. Accessible supplies of fresh water are limited, and people's needs keep rising, writes Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991.

French president-elect Francois Hollande is man of broad vision and precisely what France needs to pull itself out of the current crisis and put in place a policy for economic and social recovery. But his victory Sunday goes far beyond this: it is a resounding confirmation of numerous signs that Europe has recognised the failure of neoliberal ideology and is changing course, writes Mario Soares, ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal.

Five long-term trends form the backdrop for U.S. relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan: the fall of the US empire; the de-development of the West; the decline of the state system in favour of nationalisms from below and regionalisms from above; the rise of the rest of the world, and in particular China, writes Johan Galtung, rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of ‘The Fall of the US Empire -And Then What?'

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act signed by President Barack Obama on April 4th, 2012, had been loaded with provisions pushed by Wall Street lobbyists to include "small" companies capitalised at up to one billion dollars and perverted by relaxing both requirements of Security and Exchange Commission reporting and compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley financial regulations passed in response to the 2008 crisis, writes Hazel Henderson, author, president of Ethical Markets Media (United States and Brazil), creator of the Green Transition Scoreboard, and co-creator of the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators.

After often bruising negotiations along North-South lines, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has obtained a renewed and broad mandate for its future work, including on global economic issues, writes Martin Khor, executive director of the South Centre in Geneva.

The GAI conference is the premier agriculture investment event in the world. The 3,000-dollar admission tickets in New York were not for the small landholders from Africa but for institutional and global end investors and fund managers –all mulling over the economic opportunities agricultural lands have to offer, write Anuradha Mittal, founder and executive director, and Jeff Furman, member of the Board of Directors, of the Oakland Institute.

President Barack Obama indicated in Prague in 2009 that he was interested in achieving a "world without nuclear weapons." Since that bold statement (which was one of the reasons for his Nobel peace prize) he has been persuaded by his foreign policy advisors and pressured by the Nuclear Weapons Laboratories to put nuclear abolition on hold and to focus instead on issues such as nuclear safety and nuclear security, writes Kevin P. Clements, professor at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand.

India may be famous for the Taj Mahal, its religious ceremonies, Bollywood films and one of the highest economic growth rates in recent years. But more importantly, India has had a positive global impact through its supply of vast quantities of low-cost, good-quality generic medicines, which have saved or prolonged millions of lives, writes Martin Khor, executive director of the South Centre in Geneva.

Germany, with decreasing unit labour costs, high employment, quality export products, and a single euro currency, had an eurozone trade surplus growing from 64 to 140 billion euros in the period 2002-2009. They financed the trade deficits of Greece-Italy-Portugal-Spain-Ireland (GIPSI) with credits from German banks, which amounted to 522 billion euros by 2009. They do not invest in GIPSI, but offer high interest credits to be paid back, thereby putting the GIPSIs in debt bondage, writes Johan Galtung, rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of the forthcoming book "Peace Economics: From a Killing to a Living Economy"

Growth in developing economies (DEs) has accelerated significantly in the new millennium. Whereas in the 1980s and 1990s their average growth was barely higher than that of advanced economies (AEs), from the early years of the 2000s until the global crisis, the difference shot up to 5 percentage points. It widened further during 2008-11 with the collapse in AEs. Although there is diversity, the acceleration is broad-based with all developing regions enjoying faster growth than in the past. The notable exception is China, which has grown in the new millennium at broadly the same (albeit rapid) pace as in the 1990s, writes Yilmaz Akyuz, chief economist of the South Centre, Geneva.

We live now in a fast-changing world. The paradigm of globalisation and free trade is being questioned. It is now being asked whether state capitalism might be the next model of the day: capitalism guided by the strong hand of the state. As this debate continues, the reality is that the markets of Africa's major trading partners –the U.S. and EU– are stagnant or even shrinking. On the other hand, our markets are growing, as are the markets of the emerging developing economies, writes Benjamin W. Mkapa, former President of Tanzania and Chairperson of the South Centre.

The overall picture has turned much worse over the last few months. In particular, the Western demands to Iran made public prior to the Istanbul consultations on April 14, bodes ill for the next round of talks in Baghdad. Everyone has stated views, used rhetoric and taken concrete steps that bring us all closer to the abyss called ‘War on Iran'. While it is easy and dangerous to escalate a conflict, it is difficult ­without losing face­ to de-escalate and make peace, writes Jan Oberg, director and co-founder of the Transnational Foundation (TFF) in Lund, Sweden.

For years now, the major producers of weapons and oil (both essential to the world's "great power") have been seeking a confrontation with Iran, just as they did years before with Iraq, resorting to falsehoods and bogus arguments, writes Federico Mayor Zaragoza, ex-Director General of UNESCO, president of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace, and president of the IPS agency.

The nomination of José Antonio Ocampo for the Presidency of the World Bank is a source of pride and hope for all those working for economic and social development, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, writes Alicia Bárcena is the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Thus far not a single poll shows Sarkozy winning in France's upcoming presidential elections, though the president is a tenacious fighter willing to do whatever it takes to win, at times behaving like an unscrupulous thug or true mercenary. Since he began the campaign, with monumental shamelessness, he ­ the president of the rich ­ has had the nerve to present himself as the "candidate of the people", wielding near-xenophobic arguments to pander to the far right, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde diplomatique en espanol.

Trade diplomats and trade officials face several uncertainties in 2012. Many of these have their source in the continuing serious global financial crisis and its deadening hand on the real economy. This, and the reality of the major role played by corporate finance capital in the electoral process of countries, ensures nothing will be done, at least not this year, to tackle the root causes of the financial crisis, with criminal fraudulence at its heart, writes Chakravarthi Raghavan, Editor Emeritus of the SUNS (South-North Development Monitor) and an expert on trade.

The Delhi Declaration and Action Plan adopted at the 4th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on March 29, 2012, would have quickly laid to rest any residual anxiety in Western capitals that a serious rival focus of power and influence was beginning to take shape in the Indian capital, writes Shyam Saran, former Foreign Secretary with the government of India.

What will the Pope's visit bring Cuba? This is the question that tenaciously preceded Benedict XVI on his way to this perennially polemical island, which remained apparently intact by the time he ended his intense three-day visit on March 28, writes the Cuban novelist and journalist Leonardo Padura.

We are two women and mothers ­one Irish and one American­ who have experienced the loss of children in our families to the senseless violence of war. We hope that none of you will experience such pain, write Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire whose sister Anne lost three of her children to the fighting in Northern Ireland and Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son, Casey to the Iraq war. Both started antiwar movements in their communities.