The U.S. presidential nomination conventions largely will focus on domestic issues, but a number of high-profile foreign policy issues -- including immigration, U.S.-Russia relations, and the role the United States plays as a major world power --could also be highlighted in convention speeches and the parties' platforms. Three experts from international policy institutions weigh in on possible foreign policy themes in the 2012 conventions.

There has never been a time in the history of the United Nations when its leader could be more useful in taking an active role in curing the world's ills. African terrorists, warlords, revolutions, authoritarianism and a million other plights threaten to destroy international peace and stability. In all of this, where is the secretary-general?

As Iran gets set to host the Non-Aligned Movement triennial summit, Israel, the United States and a number of Jewish groups are worried that what happens in Tehran won’t stay there. The decision Wednesday by Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, to attend the 16th triennial event from August 29-31, has set off alarm bells in Washington and Jerusalem.

Since last year, there have been speculations as to whether the fire of Arab Spring would spread to China, where fast economic growth has evidently given rise to the demand for greater political participation. In my view, the chance of this is quite low. The eruption of a revolution usually calls for three socio-political conditions. First and foremost, only when the masses have nothing to lose will they choose to revolt.

Honduras is under siege. Its judicial system is almost completely dysfunctional, and more than 10,000 complaints of human rights abuses by state security forces have been filed in the last three years, according to the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras. At least 23 journalists have been killed since 2009. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have all raised grave concerns about the country's dire situation.

A parliamentary inquiry has criticised the waste of more than $1 million in taxpayers' money by the Gillard government in its botched tender for Australia's television service into Asia. The Australia Network saga last year saw public broadcaster the ABC pitted against rival station Sky News, part-owned by News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch, in a contest over a $223 million contract to run the service.

The spat between Japan and South Korea over two islets, known as Dokdo in Korean, Takeshima in Japanese, and Liancourt Rocks in some international registers, has been propelled into global headlines by an unusual convergence of events.

Tom Carter... felt it was appropriate to honor Albright and “highlight the role of jazz as a diplomatic tool” in the same year that the institute worked with UNESCO to establish the first International Jazz Day. “Madeleine understands the importance of jazz not only as an art form but as a means of bringing people together around the world,” Carter said in a telephone interview.