In 2009, the world experienced economic turbulence, political changes, modification of national policies, and broad interaction among powers.
In interviews with Xinhua, experts from around the globe provided their interpretation to the year of change.
EMERGING ECONOMIES TAKING BIGGER ROLE
The year 2009 witnessed three "first times" which indicating the rising status of emerging economies in the world's decision making process:
-- The first summit of BRIC, which groups Brazil, Russia, India and China, was held in June in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Leaders from the four
countries decided to unite in dealing with the global financial crisis and promoting world economic recovery.
-- At the Group of Eight summit held in July in L'Aquila, Italy, G8 members for the first time issued a joint declaration on tackling global
challenges with six major developing states, namely China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt.
-- At the Pittsburgh summit in September, the Group of 20, consisting of major developed countries and rising economies, was for the first time confirmed as the de facto decision-making mechanism for global economic management.
These three developments delivered a common signal: developing countries' increasing participation in global affairs was reducing the
dominance of the Western developed countries.
The use of G20 in dealing with the financial crisis was probably "the most important step" in global governance in 2009, said Joseph Nye, a highly regarded professor at Harvard University.
Zheng Yongnian, Director of the East Asian Institute of National University of Singapore, said that in the current world management, no
problem could be resolved without the participation of emerging economies.
The change in the world management framework is universally ascribed to the changing distribution of powers. In particular, under the impact of the financial and economic crisis, the Western countries were unable to deal with major challenges by themselves and have had to promote cooperation with their developing partners, analysts say.
Stanley Crossick, former chairman of the European Policy Center, a Brussels-based think tank, said the financial and economic crisis
undoubtedly accelerated "the move of power from the West to the East."
Australian Professor and strategist Hugh White believed Asia would become the new center of the global economy and strategy in the new century.
However, those coming changes have not yet led to profound transformation of the world structure.
"Most people now agree that the world political and economic framework needs restructuring, but how to restructure is still left un-answered," said Zheng Yongnian.
Yuri Tavrovsky, a professor at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, told Xinhua the current political and economic structure of the
world still stood on the dollar-dominant world economy that the United States established after the World War II.
The emergence of G20 reflected the world's recognition of a new power balance, Tavrovsky said. He pointed out that the new political structure was still in its preliminary phase, and whether it could develop into an effective global political architecture needed to stand the further trial of time.
MAJOR POWERS CONTINUE COOPERATION WHILE DIFFERENCES REMAINED
In 2009, relations among major countries were, in general, stable and showed fairly significant improvement, despite of their differences.
For example, the trilateral relations among China, Russia and the United States are in an overall positive trend, although they have frictions due to their respective strategic interests.
At a meeting in London in April, Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama agreed to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship in the 21st century. The two sides also agreed on
the establishment of a strategic dialogue mechanism. During Obama's visit to China in November, the two sides issued a joint statement reiterating the commitment to taking concrete actions to build a partnership to jointly cope
with common challenges.
"It is very important for the United States and China to manage their relationship well because of their impact on the world economy," said Nye.
Professor Mostafa Elwi Seif, dean of the political science faculty at Cairo University, said stronger economic power for both China and the United States were in the interests of each other.
For the United States and Russia, mitigation was evident in their relationship. In April, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reached important consensus on nuclear disarmament. In July, the two countries
signed framework documents about a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. In September, the Obama administration abandoned the Bush era plans to deploy anti-missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. In response, Russia announced the cancellation of its counterplan.
All these positive moves had made Russia increasingly optimistic about its future relations with the United States, Tavrovsky said. Nonetheless, this did not mean the United States would not try to curb Russia, the expert warned.
For Russia and China, strategic mutual trust was further promoted in 2009, the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties. Chinese President Hu Jintao went to Moscow for a celebration of the anniversary in June. In October, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made an official visit to China, where the two sides reiterated their shared priority in diplomatic policies to develop the strategic partnership of cooperation between the two countries.
According to Yuri Tavrosky, "strategically speaking, Russia and China are very important to each other."
New trends were also seen in the foreign policies of Japan and the European Union. After taking power in September, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama adopted a foreign policy which put more emphasis on Asia while seeking "equal" status with the United States.
However, regarding to the relations between the United States and Europe, experts said, despite that Europe is still the most important
partner of Washington in dealing with global affairs, their cooperation had become much less intimate than it was during World War II and the Cold War.
Zheng Yongnian said the increasing challenges brought about by globalization, which demanded cooperation among major countries for
solution.
The Obama administration, by integrating smart power into its foreign policy, had decided to exercise its leadership to build partnerships and solve problems that no nation could solve on its own, Nye said.
SECURITY CHALLENGES TEST GLOBAL WISDOM
In 2009, neither large-scale conflicts nor wars were recorded. However, new developments or even deterioration of some issues, which pose serious threats to international security, gave rise to extensive concern.
In January, Israel waged an offensive against the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which controlls the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,400 people and injuring about 5,500.
Israel said the operation was aimed at restoring security in the southern part of its territory. Two months later, right-wing politician Benjamin Netanyahu took power.
In addition, no deal has been reached on the Jewish settlement issue. A breakthrough in the Palestine-Israel peace negotiations seems more difficult to make in the current circumstances.
Nye said, although the international community would continue efforts to forward the peace process, "it is difficult to see a long progress happening in a short time."
This year witnessed the Taliban increasing the frequency of its attacks and expanding territory under its control, with rocketing troop casualties for the U.S. and its allies.
Rising to the challenges, Obama unveiled in December his new Afghanistan strategy, which included the deployment of another 30,000
soldiers to the war-weary country, mainly in the first half of 2010, and gradual withdrawal of the U.S. troops from July 2011.
Crossick was reserved about the new U.S. strategy, saying Obama's resolution to destroy terrorist bases had actually no clear target, because terrorists did not need bases and the al-Qaeda was only a network.
A series of devastating explosions plagued Iraq throughout year. Many of the attacks targeted government institutions with the aim of destroying the national elections slated for early next year.
Some of Obama's expressions and moves on non-proliferation caught much attention in the international community this year. Besides the arms reduction treaty on which he reached consensus with the Russian side, Obama
outlined the great U.S. ambition for a world without nuclear weapons in his speech in Prague in April.
"Those were only a matter of gestures ... The reduction of nuclear weapons is to be a long process ... and there is a long journey ahead before real reductions," said Zheng Yongnian.
In Northeast Asia, efforts to resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue suffered difficulties. In April, the launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) of a satellite led to the UN Security Council
declaring it in contravention of Security Council resolution 1718. In a strong response, the DPRK withdrew from the six-party talks and restored its nuclear facilities. The DPRK has since tried to hold talks with the United States outside the six-party talks framework.
However, as Nye said, the United States does not believe that such an issue can be solved bilaterally. "It is a multilateral problem. It does belong to the six-party talks," he said.
On Iran's nuclear issue, a single step forward seemed difficult. It acknowledged in September the construction of a new uranium enrichment facility. In November, the IAEA's request for Iran to stop the construction
and to clarify all pending problems involving its nuclear issue was rejected.
The Iran nuclear issue appeared to be entering a periodical stalemate, said Nye, adding that the key was for Iran to live up to its international obligations. "I don't think there would be any prospective attack by the Israelis if the Iranians lived up to the agreement."
The countermeasures against climate change, a serious non-traditional threat, is at crossroads in 2009. Disputes dominated negotiations at the Copenhagen UN conference due to developed countries' reluctance to take
responsibility for their emissions in the history of industrialization and their inadequate offer of capital and technological assistance to developing countries.
All countries would fall victim to natural disasters if climate change continued to worsen, said Zheng Yongnian. He said the performance of the developed country with the highest per capita carbon emission had been disappointing because it attempted to shift its obligation.