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Pakistan’s existential crisis
With sectarian tensions, weak institutions and yet another political crisis possibly in the making, the situation in Pakistan looks more dire than ever.Shiite Muslim taking part in a Ashura procession...
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Xi Jinping: a new kind of politician?
Just months into Xi Jinping’s tenure as Chinese Communist Party leader, one thing has become eminently clear – in both style and substance, Xi Jinping is no Hu Jintao. Xi Jinping in February 2012....
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Civic Republicanism: a North Star for hard times
The key principle of Republicanism is to minimise domination wherever it is found. The Zapatero governments in Spain showed how this idea can shape the policies of nation states. More work must be done...
View ArticleKidney transplant case signals deep flaws in UK immigration policy and practice
Home Secretary Theresa May’s relentless pursuit of kidney transplant patient Roseline Akhalu is one more sign of crisis within the Home Office and its UK Border Agency. A supporter of Akhalu...
View ArticleThe trials of Roseline Akhalu
Why is the Home Office continuing a cruel and ludicrous campaign against a woman who they have accepted will definitely die if returned to Nigeria?In 1999, 48-year-old Roseline Akhalu’s husband, a...
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Winter in Russia: cold indoors as well as out
Most radiators in urban Russian homes are fed by hot water transported from heating plants miles away. Aging pipes frequently burst, causing hardship and even fatalities. Could a return to an older...
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Beyond the politics of representation: the political economy of indigenous...
An excerpt from a discussion of the art of painting practised by Gonds in the city of Bhopal in central India, which makes a case for moving the discussion of tribal or adivasi art away from...
View ArticleIs the world riding a wild horse? Read Mark Helprin to understand American...
Helprin’s latest novel, In Sunlight and in Shadow, can be read as an elegy for the American Century. Helprin’s emphasis on invidividual responsibility, as well as his backwards-lookingness,...
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Welcome to UKOGBANI!
As more evidence of royal interventions in the British political system emerge, we should consider how public support for monarchy could be reconciled with radical constitutional change. What would a...
View ArticleIslamic 'Resistance' in the southern suburbs of Beirut
Islamic Resistance is normally understood as military activism: armed actors using the same ideology and undertaking distinct political aims sometimes using force. But in Dahiyye, 'Resistance' can also...
View ArticleIn militias we trust: Libya's conundrum
The rapid disintegration of Muammar al Gaddafi’s armed forces and police meant that the militias born out of the revolution were the only ones equipped to fill the security vacuum left behind. Libya...
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The Promised Land 2013
This month's Europe at a glance, a collection of visual thoughts on Europe and where it is heading - if anywhere.(click on the image to enlarge)"BEST COUNTRY TO BE BORN IN 2013 =...
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Note to British MPs: think before criticising the European Court
A growing appetite to limit the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights has emerged among British MPs. Their criticism is mistaken, and undermines the very important work the Court does in...
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The power to 'create money out of thin air'
Understanding capitalism's elastic production of money and moving on beyond Adam Smith and 'fractional reserve banking' - Ann Pettifor reviews Geoffrey Ingham's Capitalism Introduction Modern finance...
View ArticleA 'Fresh Start' for Britain in Europe?
A new manifesto, 'Fresh Start', has been published by a group of Conservative MPs proposing a new relationship between the UK and EU. The (not so hidden) agenda: sweeping away many of the rights that...
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Time horizons of transformation: lessons from the German unification for the...
The harmonisation of national economies inside the eurozone is essentially a clash of time horizons – the future might be bright, but the transformation process in hard-hit countries is painful, and...
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To live so as not to feel ashamed: remembering lawyer Yury Schmidt
Tributes are flooding in to the renowned Russian human rights lawyer Yury Schmidt, who has died aged 75. Schmidt devoted much of his career to defending critics of the Russian government and others...
View ArticleFive years on: identity and Kenya's post-election violence
As Kenyan citizens prepare to return to the polls in March this year, Valentina Baú looks at what made the Rift Valley one of the hotspots of the 2007/2008 violence. Although the country is calling for...
View ArticleSyria and the risk of Somalisation
If the crisis continues, Syria risks not so much division into hostile states as happened in Yugoslavia, but control by warlords who will persecute the Syrian people.The declarations of the...
View ArticleConvincing suicide-bombers that God says no
The dominant perception of suicide-attackers has paid too much attention to the unchallenged assumptions of past experts and too little to the clinical evidence, says Adam Lankford.Imagine that...
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