Now for our weekly wrap up of global politics with Dr Stephen Hoadley Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Arts. 

Update on the United States. 

China has been quietly expanding its influence and not just in the South China Sea.  

The European Union was the success story of the turn of the century but looks a bit fragile currently.  

The Middle East and North Africa are troubled regions but now there's a ray of hope in Libya...and maybe in Iraq. too.  

Sending emails in the Pacific islands region has become a geopolitical issue.  

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