Mayors of 41 cities in Latin America and the Caribbean today established the Cities Alliance for Citizen Security, a regional dialogue network aimed at sharing experiences of innovation in violence and crime prevention and control, with an impact on quality of life and improved citizen security.

The future direction of European defense is at a crossroads. On the one hand, the NATO experience in Afghanistan has cast into stark relief the limits of European military capacities, not only at the operational but also at the political levels.

Giving economy preference to security was an unimpressive show of imprudent diplomacy during Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s recent visit to Pakistan. The mild attitude that Pakistan had shown towards Afghan President reflected that Pakistani authorities were so obliged by Karzai’s arrival that they deemed it better not to get into serious discussions about security issues and stick to economy and trade.

The dialogue is being held at a crucial juncture, when Pakistan is poised to play a critical role in Afghanistan where US-led international troops are battling a determined Taliban insurgency.