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The case for the EU's External Action Service
EU High Representative Catherine Ashton steps down from leading the European External Action Service in late 2014. But despite her best efforts, the basic case for the EEAS remains unclear to...
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From protests to pogroms
As the level of inter-ethnic violence reaches disturbing proportions, Emil Pain asks if Russia’s protest moment has turned nasty. In the middle of 2012, Russia’s influential Centre for Strategic...
View ArticleAutocrats, super-tweeps and Twitter’s overnight tribes
Why people who seek to use Twitter as a measure of popularity, legitimacy or credibility should begin by blocking their fake followers.Twitter is regularly referred to as the tool that helped mobilise...
View ArticleA very German myth: feral boys and the conflict between civilization and culture
In the internal exile in which Romanticism has languished in post-war Germany, encounters with feral boys (even those established as shams) have - while they have lasted - once more lit a fire under...
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The power of London Scots
Scotland's image is being forged by the media across the United Kingdom. Is the union being weakened by the ill-informed media elite who are shaping this image?Andrew Marr. Flickr/Chris Boland. Some...
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Is devaluation of sterling the answer to Britain's economic woes?
In his new book John Mills makes a strong case for a British devaluation of sterling but we must start thinking about the socio-political foundations which shape our dysfunctional economy - you can't...
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A time for creative suffering: Martin Luther King’s words in a surveillance...
What words would he have used to denounce the way the government surveillance he was under is now commonplace and pervasive, potentially targeting anyone in the United States? So much has changed since...
View ArticleMass slaughter of civilian Kurds in Syria ignites heavy clashes and mass exodus
The al-Qaeda linked “Jabhat al-Nusra” (al-Nusra Front) in Syria, stands accused of instigating a sectarian racist war against civilian Kurds in Syria’s northern Kurdish region, one that is escalating...
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Flash mob iftars and the Ramadan Tent: Islamic organizing for social justice
Inspired by Islamic traditions, London's dynamic young Muslim scene is struggling for change. Omar Salha's Ramadan tent. Credit: www.theasiandestination.com. All rights reserved.Five years ago Ruhul...
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The racist attacks against Cécile Kyenge and the enduring myth of the ‘nice’...
Italy still lacks a collective reflection on the way it has dealt with the relationship between race, gender, nation, identity and immigration, both in the present and in the past. But Cécile Kyenge,...
View ArticleSyria: the pace quickens — but towards what?
Soon, military action against the Assad regime by western powers may be all but inevitable. But what kind of action, for what purpose, in the service of what larger strategy? Evidence of massive...
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How to write about the Balkans
A handy guide for journalists on how to write about this mysterious and brooding regionFlickr/Zoya Naskova. Some rights reserved.Begin with some dramatic, vaguely dangerous-sounding scenery. For...
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Lebanon’s worsening strife
Politically, the country is a melting pot of regional and highly localised concerns, playing out along axes of political opportunism, religion and economic necessity, with various religious groups...
View ArticleSyria, a fatal choice
The momentum in the United States is shifting towards a larger-scale attack on the Assad regime. But even a limited one will transform the nature of the war, with region-wide consequences.The political...
View ArticleEgypt in the balance: what the blogs are saying 22-27 August
This Arab Awakening space for excerpts of articles, blogs and tweets is a weekly holding operation for those trying to work out what is happening. The 'You tell us' feature offers some first hand...
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Twelve bullets in a man’s body, twelve more in a collective fantasy
The ANC's increasingly violent and repressive campaign against informally organised shack dwellers movements, like Abahlali BaseMjondolo, is refocusing the site of popular political struggle in South...
View ArticleJordan bearing the brunt
Already home to almost two million Palestinians, Jordan has had to take in almost a million Iraqi refugees as an aftermath of the two Gulf wars, the majority of whom have not returned.So it seems as if...
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‘The twain shall and do meet’: narrating conversion to Islam in Britain
Being British and being a Muslim have previously been seen as two identities in opposition. Does the conversion of British people to Islam create a perspective that embodies not one or the other, but...
View ArticleThree-way conversation in Istanbul
Members of resistance movements from Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia come together on Gezi Radyo to compare experiences, discuss ways to cooperate and debate how to build a better future.Gezi Radyo organized...
View ArticleVirtuous war no more
Recent events in the Middle East and MENA region, not least the now infamous interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, have shown that the right and wrong dichotomy with good and evil players in a...
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