It remains to be seen if divergent views on support to farmers will have a negative impact, not just on the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round, but also on bilateral relations. On the soft-power side, France needs to attract more Indian scientists and students to its academic institutions.

Legislation
Summarized by Alex Laverty

While China’s economy raced ahead on the back of its low-cost manufacturing skills, India has become an information technology hub because of the skills of its software engineers. But concerns are growing that India may be losing the edge as China pours much more money into science, research and innovation.

For China, the quest to develop advanced computing centers is not simply a matter of national pride. It is an attempt to lay the groundwork for innovative Chinese companies and to reshape the technological landscape by doing something more than assembling the world’s desktop PCs.

More than 450 of the world's leading water experts gathered in Chapel Hill, N.C., Oct. 3-7 for the second annual conference on "Water and Health: Where Science Meets Policy." Hosted by the Gillings School of Global Public Health's Water Institute at UNC and the College of Arts and Sciences' UNC Institute for the Environment, the conference focused upon water-related research, education and outreach. Attendees from 30 countries represented a wide range of organizations, including the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CARE, U.S.

International paradigms, as realism and neoliberalism have historically defined the principles of international cooperation considering non-state actors as either negligent or influential. Hydro-politics, considers a new regime in which water can be considered by state and non-state actors as a new strategy to improve international cooperation. However, international law principles and the international water law framework seem to be working contradictory to the logics and schemes necessary for hydro-politics to become a successful platform for multilateral cooperation.

Gains in civilian technologies offer a less-threatening way for the country...to recapture a leading role as a technological power. Having access to technology and being a science destination of choice “enhances China’s soft power for sure,”...The government backing and growth prospects also help lure and retain talent, especially people who have spent time overseas.

Durban is all set to be the new venue for climate diplomacy, as leaders, negotiators and experts across continents gather in that South African city of to cobble up a consensus on the future course of action towards a more livable earth.