There are encouraging signs that the junta ruling Burma is starting to reform, and the country has been visited by Hillary Clinton and several top politicians from Europe. The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, also needs to pay Burma a visit, and soon.

Last year was a tipping point in China's approach to the world, and expectations are rising that Beijing will shoulder ever greater responsibility on the global stage. But if China joins the US as a world policeman, should the rest of us be worried?

After a frenetic 2011, what are the big trends that are going to shape Europe and the wider world in 2012? Here are ten that ECFR experts think are likely - and one widely predicted trend that we don't think will happen...

A defining figure of late twentieth century Europe, Václav Havel, has died. Among his many roles he was an ECFR Council Member, and is being mourned by those who knew, respected and - sometimes - argued with him.

Algeria did not catch fire in the year of the Arab Spring, but this does not mean that it does not deserve the attention of the EU. Algeria needs to reform if it is to remain stable, and it needs European help to do so.