While the talks dragged on inconclusively, North Korea built up its nuclear arsenal and missile technology.

BBC: North Korea: Past lessons will affect the next move

The two main parties discussed this inconclusively when they had the two-thirds majority needed for constitutional change.

ECONOMIST: Austria's election

In fact, talks between government and opposition, if they happen at all, are likely to drag on inconclusively.

ECONOMIST: Peru

Also, they have aligned themselves, albeit inconclusively, with peaceful politics, and have given that quasi-commitment some credibility by their ceasefires.

ECONOMIST: Down to the wire

And then, there is the prospect that such a meeting could end inconclusively but keep the door open for further talks sometime in late-2010 or early 2011.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Time's up on Iran

Not long ago, it seemed possible that the year-old Palestinian uprising might be dribbling inconclusively to an end, but militants on both sides have put paid to that.

ECONOMIST: Israel and the Palestinians

Instead, thanks to the professional arms controllers, the United States is going to help perpetuate Kim Jong-Il's hold on power, in exchange for his shutting down an obsolescent reactor and his promises to keep talking, probably endlessly and certainly inconclusively, about his growing nuclear weapons stockpile.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Arms controllers return

This was discussed yet again in the margins of the EcoFin meeting in Luxembourg on April 21st inconclusively, however, since France insists on maintaining its candidate, Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the Bank of France, while the other countries prefer Wim Duisenberg, the Dutch president of the central bank's forerunner, the European Monetary Institute.

ECONOMIST: Gordon Brown, the lonely chancellor | The