The foundation of human security in every society
The social fabric of a group is woven, in the first place, by the efforts of women. After war, the surest way to rebuild society is to protect and empower those who will re-weave the torn social fabric...
View ArticleSri Lanka's BBS: an old spectre in new garb?
Though interreligious violence in Sri Lanka is not new, the emergence of the well-organized, well-connected Buddhist radical group reflects a broader problem today - the alarming shortage of critical...
View ArticleProblematic protection: the law on Elimination of Violence against Women in...
The attempt on May 18th to get the Afghan parliament to ratify a key law on violence against women ended in a fiasco and has been angrily dismissed as the politicking of a single ambitious female...
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Not everyone can be a world citizen
Recent calls for 'renewed' identities in the UK mean little so long as they fail to assess the role of the state in a multicultural society. Certainly, a fundamental recognition is needed: that it is...
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The myth of resettlement in Delhi
Since 2000, activist groups across India have sought to defend slum communities from dispossession in favour of 'participatory' resettlement on the urban periphery. The popularity of such reasoning has...
View ArticleSri Lanka remembers to forget
Celebrations to mark the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war perform the function of collective forgetting. If the country looked back at recommendations made in the past, Sri Lankans might understand better...
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Desegregating Roma and Croat schoolchildren: what has been done?
Three years after the ECHR's decision in Oršuš and Others v. Croatia found "separate but equal" education to be unconstitutional, the Roma Education Fund traveled to Međimurje County in Croatia to see...
View ArticleOutsourcer Nick Buckles retires at 52, a multimillionaire
Security company G4S and its executives have got rich dismantling public services.Yesterday a man called Nick Buckles retired, aged 52, with a fortune in excess of £20 million. He is not an inventor or...
View ArticleHow to vote for peace
In order to vote for peace, we must first vote for voting systems which are 'peace-ful'. Peter Emerson argues for consensus voting which allows for differences but mutual respect, is inclusive,...
View Article'Council democracy' - reform must begin with the local
Arendt, Jefferson and Maitland are three great thinkers who all shared a passion for the power of local democracy, its ability to bridge the distance of representation. As our political system breaks...
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"I protest": challenging the war policies of the United States
After serving in the US Army, and later as a diplomat, Colonel Ann Wright resigned her position in opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, 2003. She explains her opposition to the use of drones, and why...
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Romanian media in crisis
Romanian media is in a sad state, with newspapers losing stamina by the day and television channels shamelessly blasting the political messages favored by their owners. Independent journalism still...
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Join the party!
A concession or a ruse to ensure continued authoritarian rule? In the second of two articles examining changes in Russia's electoral architecture, Grigorii Golosov considers the recent relaxation of...
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Half-capacity Jordan: whose stories do we need?
The way Jordanians imagine their national collective identity must evolve from tolerance to acceptance and from diversity to true inclusion.Since its independence in 1946, Jordan has become the home to...
View ArticleNotes on a hunger strike
You might say Habeas Corpus literally means - you have a right to keep your body. Last month, on April 14, Samir Naji al Hassan Moqbel had an article published in The New York Times. Titled “Gitmo Is...
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Planning for exclusion in Abuja
Rigid planning and development controls in Abuja, Nigeria's modern capital, have served to exclude population groups deemed 'unworldy' from the city-proper. Nigeria, a nation deeply scarred by...
View ArticleJohn Reid, the security industry's salesman in the House of Lords
Lord Reid was quick to exploit a brutal murder to promote the surveillance state.Anthony Barnett is right to recoil at Lord Reid's response to yesterday's murder of an off-duty soldier, 25 year old...
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EU economic and monetary disunion
Backtracking on the EU's monetary union will be politically very costly, but in the absence of a genuine economic and political union this stands out as the most likely scenario. What are the...
View ArticleLGBT violence in the Balkans
Throughout the Balkans, LGBT advocates and their supporters face violence, cancelled Pride parades, and unresponsive or disrespectful police. What hope is there for sexual minorities in the...
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Filat’s Gamble
Vlad Filat, until recently the Liberal Democrat Prime Minister of Moldova, is locked in a power battle with Vladimir Plahotniuc, the country’s one and only oligarch. This war of attrition threatens the...
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