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COPENHAGEN IS a symptom of a wider failure – the failure of the nation state as an organising principle for today’s world, a world that is radically different from the one in which the nation state principle was devised, writes JOHN BRUTON 

This is closely related to two other modern dilemmas. Why do people get so angry with their politicians? Why is there such a big gap between the way people spend their scarce time and money, and the things they say they believe are really important?

The failure of world leaders to come up with a meaningful and binding agreement on climate change at the long-planned meeting in Copenhagen means that the binding, if incompletely applied, agreement in the Kyoto protocol will now expire and will not be replaced in time, if...