By Simon Robinson and Himanshu Ojha

(Reuters) – During the Cold War, the relative power of the United States and the Soviet Union were regularly measured in gold, silver and bronze. The last couple of Olympic Summer Games have been a race between China and the United States, with America triumphing in Athens in 2004, and China, on home turf, overtaking its rival four years later. Many commentators saw that shift as a symbol of U.S. decline and of China’s growing economic clout.

The 21st century is likely to be a multi-polar world, however. What does the medal tally say about shifting global power today?

July 30 (Reuters) – During the Cold War, the relative power
of the United States and the Soviet Union were regularly
measured in gold, silver and bronze. The last couple of Olympic
Summer Games have been a race between China and the United
States, with America triumphing in Athens in 2004, and China, on
home turf, overtaking its rival four years later. Many
commentators saw that shift as a symbol of U.S. decline and of
China’s growing economic clout.

The 21st century is likely to be a multi-polar world,
however. What does the medal tally say about shifting global
power today?

MALUALKON, South Sudan (Reuters) – The world’s newest nation relies on oil to finance 98 percent of its budget. So when the government decided to shut off crude production in January after a dispute with a neighbor, South Sudan’s foreign donors and aid groups were shocked.

How will the country survive, they wondered?

By leaning even more heavily on donors and aid groups, an examination of the country’s safety net shows.

In the following witness piece, Reuters Enterprise Editor Simon Robinson recalls how as a correspondent for a U.S. magazine he witnessed the U.S. capture of Baghdad in April 2003, and reflects on events in Tripoli.

By Simon Robinson

(Reuters) – Watching the images of Libyan rebels streaming into Muammar Gaddafi’s compound, decapitating statues and waving the accouterments of power they had just looted it was hard not to think back to that day in Baghdad eight years ago.

LONDON (Reuters) – When Saudi King Abdullah arrived home last week, he came bearing gifts: handouts worth $37 billion, apparently intended to placate Saudis of modest means and insulate the world’s biggest oil exporter from the wave of protest sweeping the Arab world.

But some of the biggest handouts over the past two decades have gone to his own extended family, according to unpublished American diplomatic cables dating back to 1996.

LONDON (Reuters) – When Saudi King Abdullah arrived home last week, he came bearing gifts: handouts worth $37 billion (22.8 billion pounds), apparently intended to placate Saudis of modest means and insulate the world’s biggest oil exporter from the wave of protest sweeping the Arab world.

But some of the biggest handouts over the past two decades have gone to his own extended family, according to unpublished American diplomatic cables dating back to 1996.

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – When Saudi King Abdullah arrived
home last week, he came bearing gifts: handouts worth $37
billion, apparently intended to placate Saudis of modest means
and insulate the world’s biggest oil exporter from the wave of
protest sweeping the Arab world.

But some of the biggest handouts over the past two decades
have gone to his own extended family, according to unpublished
American diplomatic cables dating back to 1996.