Sheikh Hasina Wajed

• In third place comes NATO commander in Afghanistan General David McKiernan. He has won the support of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates for an extra 20 billion dollars to be spent upgrading the Afghan army, and for 19,000 US troops operating independently of NATO in the country (a further 15,000 serve in NATO forces as well) to be integrated into the alliance’s command structure. The Afghan army is scheduled to double in size by 2013, and two new US brigades are scheduled to arrive next year, but in the mean time (with violence against international forces intensifying) a single chain of command allows for forces to be pooled where they are needed most, in tackling the Taliban.

• President Dimtry Medvedev might have been expected to head the list this week, after Russian forces won a convincing conventional victory against troublesome neighbour Georgia. Russia is now in a powerful position to dictate the future of secessionist statelets Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and a pro-Western local rival, Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Georgia, will struggle to keep a grip on power after his forces’ ill-judged intervention. NATO membership for Georgia, already doubtful, now looks remote. However, while Moscow has won the war on the ground, it has comprehensively lost the battle for international opinion. The United States and certain EU states have been strongly critical of the Russian response to Georgia and the Western press has been fearful of Russian intentions. Medvedev will therefore have to tread carefully in exploiting his victory.

• Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Awami League (AL) Sheikh Hasina Wajed wins this week’s masterstroke. Her party signalled its overwhelming strength in local elections last week (though electoral rules prevented it from running candidates under its own name), and she now learns that the release from jail of her rival, leader of the divided Bangladeshi National Party (BNP) Begum Khaleda Zia, is to be delayed. With the BNL backing several leadership candidates while Zia’s fate in uncertain, the party may not even contest general elections in December. This leaves the secular leftist AL well-placed to take power at the end of the year.