Arab states of the Persian gulf areDictionary.com15(Dictionary.com is one of the most respected sources for definitions on the web.)The countries bordering the Persian Gulf in southwest Asia, including Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman.

Greater Horn OF Africa isFederal chancellery15(The Federal Chancellery provides services to the Federal Council and the Federal Administration as a whole, as well as to the general public. The range of services provided is continually adapted to meet new needs and challenges.http://www.bk.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en)The Greater Horn of Africa, as defined by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), comprises eight countries (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda). Based on the priorities decided by the Swiss Federal Parliament (Message on International Cooperation 20132016) as well as important migratory flows and regional droughts affecting the entire region, Yemen but not Uganda is conceptually also considered by Switzerland into the Horn of Africa region, and operations in Kenya are limited to the North and North-East only. Such a complex and big region (around 200 million people on 4.5 million km2, corresponding roughly to Western Europe) can be treated as a single entity only through an overall political approach. To deliver its expertise and maximize its impact with an operational concentration, the Greater Horn of Africa is therefore treated by Switzerland through four specific Cooperation Strategies under the responsibility of several operational structures:

Northeast asia isWada07( Haruka Wada is a professor at Emeritus college in Tokyo Japan, Regional Co-operation and Its Enemies in Northeast Asia: The Impact of Domestic Forces) Northeast Asia' is a unique place where the notion of regional community- building has been neglected even during the post-Cold War era. There are reasons for the uniqueness. Northeast Asia is a heterogeneous region in terms of culture. history. politics. and social background. Furthermore. the region has been rife with conflicts. Co-existence has not been peaceful in this stretch of land where East Asian. Russo-Eurasian. and Western values come together. Other divisive elements. alongside cultural diversity. have promoted contention in the region. There are the former imperialist aggressors (Russia and Japan) and their victims (China and Korea). There is great distrust among the remain-_ ing socialist countries (North Korea and China). former socialist countries (Mongolia and Russia). and capitalist countries. (Japan. South Korea. and the United States). There are three longstanding nuclear powers (the United States. Russia. and China) that have experienced bitter rivalries with one another, and a recent nuclear power (North Korea) that contributes to the instability. There are two divided countries (Korea and China). There are three widely known territorial controversies (the northern four islands dispute between Japan and Russia. the Takeshima/Dokdo dispute between Japan and Korea, and the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute between Japan and China). Moreover, various lingering historical issues continue to divide the peoples of Northeast Asia. Both its pronounced heterogeneity and its embittering contentiousness have discouraged Northeast Asia from any attempt to build 21 genuine regional communitv.

Baltic states areBater15( James H. Bater Professor of Geography, University of Waterloo, Ontario. Author of Russia and the Post-Soviet Scene: A Geographical Perspective and others.)Baltic states, northeastern region of Europe containing the countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic states are bounded on the west and north by the Baltic Sea, which gives the region its name,