So I think after several generations, and here is the idea, we really have a tinderbox.

But the biggest risks posed by unilateral recognition of Kosovo s independence are in the South Caucasus, a region that abuts the tinderbox of today s Middle East. Here, there is a real danger that Russia may recognize breakaway regions in the South Caucasus, and back them more strongly than it does now.

Ten years after Saddam s removal, Iraq s future remains where it always has been in the hands of Iraqis, who will have to rise to the occasion. No one can create a stable political order for them with the Americans gone, meddlesome Arab neighbors and anxious Iranians can only lose by dooming Iraq to remain a tinderbox.

Unless collective action is taken now to transform cities like Nairobi into the drivers of economic development and sources of opportunity that they are supposed to be, they will become a tinderbox of perpetual inequality. For the sake of the millions of people like my mother and, more important, for the sake of their children and grandchildren we must fulfill the promise that attracts the poor to cities in the first place.