Back to Gideon RachmanI ended last year with a column that looked back on 2006 and tried to list the "five most important events" of the year. They were - I claimed - Russia’s cut-off of gas to Ukraine; the bombing of the golden mosque in Iraq; the release of an "Inconvenient Truth"; Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the US mid-term elections.
I intend to repeat the exercise for 2007 in my column next Tuesday (18th December). But with a slight difference. This time I would like to canvas opinion ahead of time. Please let me know, by Friday, what your nominations are. Of course, I realise this in some ways a fatuous exercise. But that’s never stopped me in the past.
Here is my preliminary top five - plus some other events that I’m considering. I won’t go into much detail about my reasoning, otherwise I’ll have written the article in advance. Events are numbered chronologically:
1) The surge
2) Sarkozy elected
3) Blair steps down
4) Flotation of PetroChina - becomes largest company in world by market cap, selected largely for symbolic reasons
5) Sub-prime crisis
But that’s a tentative list, and I’m open to persuasion. Here are some other events I’m thinking about including - Musharraf’s mini-coup; Hamas’s seizure of Gaza; something Russian - either Putin’s Munich speech, or possibly today’s announcement that Medvedev is his chosen successor; the monks’ revolt in Burma; Gore gets an Oscar and a Nobel prize; the revival of the EU constitution; the NIE report on Iran; the resignation of Shinzo Abe; the defeat of John Howard; Turkey’s constitutional crisis and the re-election of the AKP; the last episode of the Sopranos.
Please feel free to add to my list, or to make a case for any of the events above.
This blog covers a variety of topics from US foreign policy to European politics and the Middle East - and whatever else happens to be in the news or catch my attention. I joined the FT as chief foreign affairs commentator in 2006, after a 15-year career at The Economist which included stints as a correspondent in Brussels, Bangkok and Washington. I write a weekly column on foreign affairs, which appears in the paper on Tuesdays. Occasionally my FT colleagues contribute posts to this blog.
Geoff Dyer is the FT's China bureau chief. He has been a correspondent in Shanghai and in Brazil and has also covered the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries from London.
Roula Khalaf is the FT's Middle East editor. She has worked for the FT since 1995, first as North Africa correspondent, then Middle East correspondent and most recently as Middle East editor. Before joining the FT, she was a staff writer for Forbes magazine in New York. 
James Blitz is the FT's defence and diplomatic editor. He has been the FT's political editor, based in London, and Rome bureau chief. James is a former Moscow bureau chief for the Sunday Times.
Alan Beattie is the FT's world trade editor. He has previously been economics leader writer and spent two years in Washington DC as chief US economics correspondent. Before joining the FT, Alan was an economist at the Bank of England. 
Victor Mallet is the FT's Madrid correspondent. He is a former Asia editor of the FT, and, in more than 20 years at the organisation, has also worked in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. In 1990 he escaped from Kuwait after being one of the few foreign correspondents there when Iraq invaded. 
Stefan Wagstyl is the FT's eastern Europe editor, co-ordinating coverage of the region. He has also been the FT's bureau chief in Tokyo and New Delhi.
