The World Health Organization (WHO) is undergoing a crisis of credibility and challenge. Having been subjected to a severe financial crisis and criticisms of its management of pandemics such as the H1N1 flu case and the outbreak of Ebola, with a new Director-General at its helm, it is an ideal time to review the WHO's past and current achievements including on-going operations and reported failures. Whilst time is given to recurrent attacks on WHO performance, it is balanced by also highlighting the WHO's leadership, its member states, and its influence on other actors, NGOs and business....

Amidst huge upheaval, energy remains of crucial economic and political importance to the MENA region. Declining oil prices, skyrocketing domestic demand, the rise of unconventional oil and natural gas production and shifting patterns of trade all put severe pressures on energy producing countries and present their policy-makers with fundamental challenges. Should MENA countries continue to provide energy at heavily subsidized prices demand will increase and there will be little margin for urgently needed energy infrastructure investments thus a decision to cut subsidies would come with...

Global energy problems will remain a challenge in the coming decades. The impact of climate change and the melting of polar sea ice opening up access to offshore hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic Ocean, raises questions for both civil society and the scientific community over drilling opportunities in Arctic marine areas.

Disparities in approach to the governance of oil and gas extraction in the Arctic arise from fundamental differences in histories, cultures, domestic constraints and substantive values and attitudes in the Arctic coastal states and sub-states. Differing...