March 5, 2007 Issue

COVER: Why This Man Will Fail (All overseas editions). United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who stepped into the job in January, is bound to fail, and it's not completely his fault, writes Sebastian Mallaby, director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, in a guest essay. Ban's selection was the result of backroom deals rather than a merit-based contest, and his life has not prepared him for the role of charismatic statesman. Leaders gain stature by virtue of leading, and it's possible that Ban will grow into his position. But, as Mallaby writes, the position and the structure at the U.N. conspire against him. The U.N. secretary-general, no matter how skilled, is caught between big powers that refuse to make the institution fair and small powers that refuse to make it more efficient. The selfishness of one side encourages the irresponsibility of the other. Because the Secretariat implements resolutions passed by the unrepresentative Security Council, the General Assembly sees no urgency in making it efficient.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070225/NYSU005 )

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17311792/site/newsweek/

COVER: The Letdown (Japan Only). Tokyo Bureau Chief Christian Caryl and Special Correspondent Akiko Kashiwagi report on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's flailing administration and look at whether or not he can rebound. Abe started strong last fall, when he used deft diplomacy to warm Japan's icy relations with China and South Korea. But now he's watched his administration succumb to inertia, scandal and backbiting. This supposedly tough-minded conservative is now being faulted by the public for weak leadership and a resounding failure to stay on message. The polls show a politician in free- fall. In just four months, Abe's popularity has plummeted by 30 points. The speed of his collapse may be surprising, but one cause is clear: surrounded by young and inexperienced advisers, he can't stay focused on the problems that worry voters.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17311795/site/newsweek/

Beleaguered and Besieged. Moscow Bureau Chief Owen Matthews reports that a wave of violence is sweeping Turkey, targeting the country's modern pro- European elite. Turkey's ruling AK Party faces the same peril-a nationalist backlash that is undermining four years of sweeping progress. The nationalists have a growing list of grievances, chief among them that Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prodded by Brussels, granted more cultural rights to the country's 13 million Kurds.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17311794/site/newsweek/

Stuck on the Sidelines. Japan's decision not to participate in the new nuclear deal with North Korea owes to a particularly thorny issue in the country's domestic politics: the question of abductees. If the new deal collapses, Japan could bear most of the blame in Asia for refusing to support it. If Japan continues to hold its energy assistance hostage to the abduction issue, it may also invite suspicion from neighboring countries that Tokyo secretly hopes to ensure Pyongyang keeps its nukes as an excuse for Japan to explore its own nuclear option, writes Yoichi Funabashi, the chief diplomatic correspondent for the Asahi Shimbun in Toyko and an International Council member of the Asia Society.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17302857/site/newsweek/

Closure for Cambodia? Special Correspondent Erika Kinetz reports that nearly 10 years after the Cambodian government first asked for help setting up a court to try leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, it has yet to hold a single hearing. The U.S. refuses to fund the court on the grounds that it is not up to international standards, and ambassador Joseph Mussomeli says "no trial would be better than a trial that will be a farce." The foreign and Cambodian judges are deadlocked over procedure, and the foreign judges have threatened to walk out rather than participate in what they fear could become an exercise in politics over justice.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17311798/site/newsweek/

The Mysterious Mullah Omar. South Asia Correspondent Ron Moreau and Special Correspondent Sami Yousafzai report on the re-emergence of the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. To his followers, Omar stands in bold contrast to the corrupt thugs who have returned to control many parts of Afghanistan and against the heavily foreign-influenced government in Kabul. After the Taliban fell, he effectively vanished. But he has gradually emerged from hiding and in 2004, began traveling from camp to camp in remote areas, rallying his old troops and recruiting new ones.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17313122/site/newsweek/

The Wedding Shortage. Marriage, long the centerpiece of Middle Eastern life, is in crisis. The reason: a new generation of young men cannot afford to marry-a fact that's destined to exacerbate many of the region's social and political problems, writes Navtej Singh Dhillon, director of the Middle East Youth Research Project at the Wolfensohn Center for Development, in a guest essay. With youth unemployment exceeding 30 percent, growing numbers of young Middle Eastern men face serious financial obstacles to getting married, especially in early adulthood.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17303203/site/newsweek/

Big, Bad Apple. Special Correspondent John Sparks reports that Europe may be starting to lose its taste for Steve Jobs' Apple and iTunes. Last summer, Norway's consumer-protection agency filed a complaint that iTunes violates Norwegian law. At the heart of the complaint was Apple's inclusion of digital- rights management (DRM) software in iTunes, which prevents files downloaded there from being played on non-Apple gadgets like mobile phones. By the year- end, regulators in Finland, France, Sweden, Denmark and Germany had opened investigations into whether DRM software was fair.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17312084/site/newsweek/

WORLD VIEW: The Surge That Might Work. The United States needs to find fresh approaches to the war in Iraq that won't feed the sectarian dynamic and will address the needs of ordinary Iraqis, not the political elites who are jockeying for power, writes Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria. The surge we should be pushing is not a military one, but a political one, and even more critically, an economic one. "One of the less-remarked upon blunders of the Coalition Provisional Authority was that-consumed by free- market ideology-it shut down all of Iraq's state-owned enterprises," he writes. "The economic effects of this decision have been seismic."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17316434/site/newsweek/

THE LAST WORD: Ali Fayyad, Hizbullah's top policy strategist. Ali Fayyad talks about the U.S. efforts to spread democracy in the Middle East and policy in Lebanon. "Bush is remaking the region through war, not through the democratic process. But as far as Lebanon is concerned, American policy has been a complete failure. I would even say that America has a crisis of strategy. They talked about the democratic process, but let us look at what the democratic process has meant. In Palestine, it enabled Hamas to reach power, and here in Lebanon it enabled Hizbullah to become stronger. In Iraq, it helped the allies of Iran reach power. So it seems that America has returned to its previous alliances with dictators in the region."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17312085/site/newsweek/ SOURCE Newsweek

-0- 02/25/2007