Next 5 Foreign Policy Stories You Missed in 2009

From Foreign Policy Magazine comes this article "The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2009". It has pictures and in depth analysis, but here is a handy summary of the next five stories for you:

1. The Beijing-Brazil Naval Axis. China wants to have a blue-water navy capable of projecting military power globally. In order to do this, you need aircraft carriers capable of launching conventional aircraft. China is building several, but that will take a decade or so, and you need to have trained pilots ready to go when those are ready. The US nor Russia nor Britain is going to train, and France is forbidden to under EU law, so that leaves one nation available- Brazil, which purchased an aircraft carrier from France in 2000. China pays to refit it, Brazil runs it, and Chinese pilots will be ready to go when the carriers are built.
2. Dead Man Gets Passport. According to internal investigations, it is very easy to get even the most advanced and sophisticated US passports. Passports are increasingly a bad line of defense.
3. Chechen Murders Go Global. All those who once led or helped out in the Chechen conflict are now being systematically and mysteriously murdered, wherever they are in the world. Strangely, there is always a Russian around or suspected when these people are murdered.
4. America Joins Uganda's Civil War. The U.S. military helped plan and fund a Ugandan military attack against an infamous rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in eastern Congo in January of this year. This is a sign that the United States' military's new Africa Command , which has thus far functioned in a mostly advisory capacity, is evolving its capabilities and taking a more active role in conflicts around Africa.
5. A ROTC for Spies. To cultivate a new generation of spies for a new generation of global threats, the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have proposed the creation of a program to find and train potential agents from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds- an ROTC for spies. Watch as a once formerly WASP-dominated agency becomes more diverse.