10. India’s Corruption Woes
印度发生多起腐败丑闻
The ruling Congress Party-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has seen its popularity and credibility plummet following waves of corruption scandals implicating top politicians accused of exploiting their positions for financial gain。
在发生多起涉及高级官员以权谋私的腐败丑闻后，由来自国大党的印度总理曼莫汉·辛格领导政府的支持度和信誉大幅下降。
The reported incidents of graft have been both epic—a billion-dollar telecoms scandal—and petty, but all have fueled the fires of public anger. Foreign observers now warn that the Indian model for democracy and development could be derailed by the country’s venal bureaucracies and crony capitalism。
媒体报道的贪腐事件牵涉甚广，有案值10亿美元的电信案，也有多起案值不高的小案件，这些都引发了公众的怒火。外国观察家现在警告称，印度的民主和发展模式可能被其贪腐的官僚政治和裙带资本主义所葬送。
9. Afghanistan: Escaping the Quagmire
阿富汗：逃离泥潭
It’s no secret that the diminishing coalition of Western governments still involved in the 11-year war in Afghanistan are desperate to get out. Some, like the French, have already wound down their military operations ahead of schedule. Washington preaches staying the course through gritted teeth until the end of 2014, at which point Afghan government forces will ostensibly have the numbers, the training, the equipment and the will to take over the fight against the Taliban。
卷入阿富汗11年战争的西方国家政府联盟急于脱身不是一个秘密。法国等一些国家已提前结束了军事行动，美国将坚守至2014年年底，阿富汗政府军到时候从名义上说拥有接管打击塔利班任务的所需人员、训练能力、装备和意愿。
That narrative has been challenged by events in 2012, not least the steady toll of regular “green-on-blue” killings—when supposedly friendly Afghan personnel attack their NATO mentors. More than 60 coalition soldiers have died in such attacks this year alone. No surprise, then, that the Administration is currently in negotiations with Kabul over keeping a residual force in Afghanistan well after the departure date。
不过2012年发生的事件对这种说法提出了挑战，其中包括一系列阿富汗政府军攻击北约教官的事件(被称为绿对蓝攻击事件)，今年就有60多名联军士兵在此类袭击事件中丧生。奥巴马政府正在与阿富汗政府就在撤军后在阿驻留部队的问题进行会谈。
8. Asia’s Troubled Waters
亚洲海洋领土问题
In a year Washington had announced would see a “pivot” of its strategic priorities away from the Middle East and toward the Asia-Pacific region, things heated up in the waters surrounding the continent’s budding hegemon, China.
就在美国宣布其战略优先事务将从中东转往亚太地区的今年，中国与其邻国出现海洋领土问题。
Beijing has grown more and more assertive in its territorial claims, both to its east in contests with Japan and in the South China Sea, which the Chinese imagine as their sphere of influence. In the East China Sea, the Chinese locked horns with Japan over its control over the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu by the Chinese)。
中国政府对东海和南海的领土主权态度越来越强硬，中国渔船和海监船越来越频繁地在南海与越南、菲律宾船只发生对抗。在东海，中国与日本就钓鱼岛主权问题发生对抗。
7. Latin America Seeks Reforms on Drugs
拉美试图在打击毒品方面进行改革
After decades of bloodshed and billions of dollars spent, there’s an emerging consensus in much of Latin America that the U.S.-authored war on drugs has caused more problems than it has solved, and ought to be ended. Some governments in the region now champion a move away from the longstanding focus on prohibition towards more practical and progressive measures。
在经过数十年的流血和数十亿美元的投入，大部分拉美国家开始认为美国主导的扫毒战争弊大于利，应该结束了。一些地区国家的政府现在主张把重点从禁止转向更为实际和前进的措施。
The greatest change has come in the small republic of Uruguay, whose center-left government pushed through legislation making the state the sole legal dispensary of marijuana. Elsewhere, a host of Latin American leaders such as Guatemala’s Otto Perez Molina have called for drug legalization, with the support of regional players such as Mexico and Colombia。
拉圭在这方面采取了最大的变化，它的中左政府推动立法，使本国成为大麻唯一合法发放者。其他拉美国家的领导人，如危地马拉总统莫利纳呼吁起草毒品法案，他的诉求也得到了墨西哥和哥伦比亚等国的支持。
6. Communist Leadership Changes
社会主义阵营领导层换届
In 2012, two of the world’s remaining Communist regimes completed two very different leadership handovers. The isolated pariah regime in North Korea saw the ascension of Kim Jon Un, the well-fed third son of the deceased Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. Kim Jon Un appears to have consolidated his power and is steadily building his own cult of authority。
2012年社会主义阵营的两个国家实现了领导层换届。已故的朝鲜前领导人金正日的儿子金正恩成为朝鲜新领导人。金正恩看起来巩固了自己的权力，正在稳步建立自己的权威。
In neighboring China a once-in-a-decade leadership transition took place. How these newly leaders navigate the domestic and international challenges of their decade at the top will be critically important in shaping global events。
中国也进行了十年一次的领导层换届，新一代领导集体在未来十年如何应对国内和国际挑战对于全球具有非常重要的意义。
5. Mali’s Crisis
马里危机
In one of the gloomier stories of a gloomy international news year, Mali turned from being hailed as one of West Africa’s democratic success stories to various metaphors of doom: it was labeled the next Somalia, a dysfunctional, failed state; the next Afghanistan, overrun by extremist militias and terrorist groups; and the next Libya, facing civil war and Western-backed military intervention。
非洲国家马里从西非的民主成功故事沦落为各种末日的隐喻，它被称作是下一个索马里、利比亚、阿富汗，被认为是一个失败国家，被极端民兵武装和恐怖团伙所控制，面临内战和西方支持的军事干涉。
