Britain - a house divided?
What does the data actually tell us about anti-Islamic violence post-Woolwich, and how do Briton's views of Islam and Muslims compare with the rest of Europe?According to one of the ‘Woolwich Angels’,...
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The struggle for a truly grassroots human rights movement
Using cutting-edge human rights perception polls, the authors explore links between social class and domestic human rights movements in Mexico, Colombia, Morocco, and India. Social elites, they find,...
View Article"Doublethink": the latest threat to women's rights in Spain
George Orwell’s “1984” is alive and well in Spain as the Minister for Justice talks- up plans to deny women the right to an abortion, says Liz Cooper Spain has recently achieved some notoriety as the...
View ArticleChina, time to accept differences
The scale of change in China, and the intriguing perceptions of China's elite, persuade Kerry Brown of the need to think afresh.In the course of over twenty years of engagement with China, most of...
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ERT’s shutdown, social amnesia, and communicative entitlements
The Greek government’s decision to close ERT has been criticised in various activist channels as anti-democratic or even irrational. Yet these activists and opponents of the ERT decision are held...
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Rainbow Russia
What is life like for gay men and women in Russia? Sergey Khazov looks at the country's gay infrastructure, and discovers a very fragmented picture. Until a couple of years ago homosexuality was, if...
View ArticleOn Prism, the Snooper's Charter, whistleblowers, spies and secret courts -...
In February 2009 the Convention of Modern Liberty gathered a distinguished crowd who cared about the issues raised by a growing UK surveillance state. Their words are worth revisiting today. 'A wake up...
View ArticleQuestioning the intelligence: Obama's decision to supply arms to Syria
The red line threshold has finally been crossed– but on unverified intelligence, encouraged by appetites for military intervention. It is Iraq all over again. The White House’s announcement that forces...
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Democracy on ice: a post-mortem of the Icelandic constitution
In spite of clear popular support, Iceland's new crowd-sourced constitution was recently killed by politicians. An ex-member of the constitutional council sheds some light on what happened - and why...
View ArticleA transatlantic corporate bill of rights
This week G8 leaders hail the opening of EU/US Free Trade negotiations as 'a once in a generation opportunity' to create jobs and growth. But behind the rhetoric, leaks of the secretive negotiating...
View ArticleIllusions and realities surrounding Iran’s presidential elections
All the opposition groups, almost without exception, had called for the boycott of the elections. Had Iranian voters listened, a worse candidate would now have won the presidency. A salient message...
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This week's window on the Middle East - June 19, 2013
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week, Libyans say no to militias.Libyans say no to militiasOne day in Gezi...
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Times of hope and despair: lessons of democracy from Gezi resistance
The latest developments translate as the end of justice and legality as we know it. What we are experiencing is a ‘state of exception’ par excellence, in Agamben’s terms, as the rhetoric of ‘necessity’...
View ArticleUK medics urge Obama to let them treat Guantánamo hunger-strikers
Detainees on hunger-strike at Guantánamo Bay say they don't trust their military doctors. 153 British doctors offer their services to visit, examine and advise the detainees.A group of UK doctors has...
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Kill or cure?
In Russia, homophobia is not just an attitude, but government policy, with new legislation reinforcing traditional hostility to sexual minorities and violence against gay people as common as ever....
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The alpha tragedy of the beta male
The announcement of the Putin divorce was unexpected and unprecedented for a Russian leader. What made him decide to do it now, when the marriage apparently broke down years ago? Was it an act of alpha...
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Confronting disorder in Brazil
Let’s try to define vandalism. Vandalism is the act of destroying what is important and valuable for the culture and history of a nation. So it is quite clear to me who is actually doing vandalism...
View ArticleIran, a cautious opening
The election of a reformist president in Iran realigns the geopolitical stars, and brings the possibility of diplomatic progress on Syria. During the summer of 1998, Taliban forces were slowly taking...
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¿Puede China ser un poder normativo?
Hasta ahora, el occidente ha intentado dictar a China cómo portarse con relación a los derechos humanos. Pero las cosas se van cambiando. China cada vez se entabla más en el debate sobre derechos. ¿Es...
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The incoherence of British Euroscepticism
There are three main arguments for how Britain would cope with a role outside the EU - it is hard to say which is the most misguided. Image: Kalyan NeelamrajuFor two thirds of the lifetime of the...
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