DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Thomas L. Friedman, the New York Times columnist and author, is one of those writers who inspire admiration and indignation in equal measure. You may not always agree with him but you cant put him down either.

DUBAI, UAE -- At the height of the Asian financial crisis and meltdown of Russia in the 1990s, a pundit said that Russian President Boris Yeltsin went to bed drunk and Brazil woke up with a hangover.

The global oil price, which peaked at $147 per barrel, has now cascaded down to below $70 a barrel. On Thursday morning, it hit $68 a barrel, and there is no end in sight, but this may be a dark cloud with some silver linings.

The extraordinary European Union summit that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for Monday looks likely to decide not simply Europes policy toward a resurgent and aggressive Russia which is talking of a new Cold War, but also the degree to which the worlds richest economy will in future seek to play a diplomatic role to match its wealth.

Spectacular Taliban successes in Afghanistan and Pakistan are forcing Western leaders to rethink their anti-terrorist strategy in both countries. In recent days, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britains Prime Minister Gordon Brown have paid separate flying visits to Kabul to assess the situation. They, and other Western heads of government, are facing the painful possibility that NATO is losing the war in Afghanistan -- a war which has also destabilized neighboring Pakistan.

TEL AVIV – The last 15 years have shown that neither Israel nor the Palestinians can reach peace on their own, each for complex internal and external reasons. My claim is that only a permanent, internationally sponsored regional peace conference can unfreeze the deadlock, and that Britain, France and Germany are bound to play a central role in this process.

The exit of U.S. President George W. Bush from the White House is already anticipated in the Arab region with sighs of relief. But what is ahead under the next president: more of the same, regardless of who wins; or change?

For almost his entire eight-year-long presidency George W. Bush said that the United States will not hold direct talks with Iran unless it discontinues uranium enrichment.

One would think that Arab leaders would have learned a lesson (or two) after failing to convincingly tell the Arab side of the conflict with Israel since the establishment of the Jewish state on Arab lands in Palestine in 1948, a loss the Arabs describe as the Nakba or catastrophe. Once again the oil-rich Arab leaders are disappointingly unable so far to convince the world of the reasons, as they see them, that led to the skyrocketing price of oil which had more than doubled in one year; now over $140 a barrel.