Back to Gideon RachmanBy Alan Beattie, the FT’s world trade editor
The Copenhagen conference will agree no treaty; the WTO ministerial in two weeks’ time will not even discuss the Doha round - roughly equivalent to staging Hamlet without the prince, Horatio, Ophelia, Rosencrantz or Guildenstern; the UN food security summit this week removed even a largely rhetorical pledge to end hunger and boost agricultural aid; Barack Obama has so far failed to elicit anything but vague hints on currency cooperation from Beijing.
Perhaps, as people often say, I’m too cynical. In the credit column, the US has agreed to re-enter negotiations on a trade treaty with four small economies, all of which have few trade barriers anyway and with two of whom it already has trade treaties. So that’s OK then.
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.