The other Guantanamo
As the US withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches, what will happen to Bagram prison, where many prisoners are held without charge, trial, or even access to a lawyer?When President Barack Obama came to...
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The German trauma
As Angela Merkel prepares to go to the polls on 22 September, memories of the great hyperinflation of the 1920s continue to hold Europe’s most powerful nation in their historic grip.Cash for capers:...
View ArticleMacedonia: pay attention to the Balkans' early-warning system
Straddling the fault-line between Islam and Christianity, this country's changing fortunes are important. In the past three years the capital of the republic of Macedonia has undergone a major building...
View ArticleLife without an overcoat, Corniche pasties in Doha and an email from Carl...
Sholto Byrnes, editor of Think., on diversity, "Corniche pasties" and setting up shop in Doha.“What’s it really like?” ask friends, former colleagues and authors, when they know I’m calling from Qatar....
View ArticleImagine seeing your little brother under fire, on television, begging to go home
The last time Nosayba Halawa, an Irish-Egyptian citizen, say her brother Ibrahim was on a live stream of the siege on a central Cairo mosque. Bel Trew reports on the children caught in the coup's...
View ArticleWill Syria be "another Iraq"?
Rhetoric aside, how does Syria today actually compare to Iraq in 2003? Iraq has been the benchmark against which many commentators judge American foreign policy in the Middle East – no one wants...
View ArticleA quarter of men in Asia-Pacific admit rape
A UN survey of 10,000 men in Asia-Pacific reveals high levels of sexual violence in the region, and asks why rape is so common.Almost a quarter of men across South East Asia and the Pacific admit to...
View ArticleSyria: Who else hasn't signed up to the chemical weapons treaty?
Egypt, North Korea, Angola, South Sudan, Israel and Myanmar haven't ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, and Russia and the US haven't met their obligations under the convention. So what power...
View ArticleObama's bizarre TV address: the President dithers over Syria
Obama could not be clearer: something needs to be done about Assad. But he is ducking every opportunity to act.If you didn't see Obama's address to the nation on Syria yesterday evening, you missed a...
View ArticleThe divided town of Deir Ezzour is a microcosm of Syria’s bitter conflict
As the threat of military intervention continues to loom over Syria, in a far-flung corner of the country, the town of Deir Ezzour offers an insight into the suffering of ordinary Syrians. Once a...
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The Syria vote was a grave blow to Britain's global prestige
Are we entering a new age of British isolationism? Even before the parliamentary vote on Syria, British influence in the world was being maintained on a tightrope. That elaborate balancing act is...
View ArticleI was a fly on the wall in Assad’s office
If I were in Bashar al-Assad's office as Obama's speech at the White House was televised around the world, I think I would hear the following. If I were a fly on the wall in President Bashar al-Assad’s...
View ArticleBrazil's protests have subsided - for now
The nationwide protests of the summer have mostly petered out, but Brazil's police and government still have a lot to answer for.At the end of August, as Brazil’s population reportedly passed the...
View ArticleHow Italians are keeping priceless artefacts out of private hands
As the recession bites, state funding for Italy's museums and galleries has disappeared, and Italians are coming up with inventive forms of common ownership, to challenge power from the bottom up.To...
View ArticleEgypt is facing a new Islamist insurgency
Suicide bombings in Sinai and an assassination attempt on the interior minister are a sign that Egypt is facing a growing threat from Islamic extremists, and the violent crackdown on the Muslim...
View ArticleInequality reaches a record high in the US, but which countries are worst off?
Five years after Lehman Brother's collapse, one group has fared spectacularly well: the richest 1 per cent. The world's superpower is now worryingly dependent on the financial fortunes of just 1.35m...
View ArticleWhy are we still relying on decades-old stereotypes when we talk about the...
Media narratives and the stereotypes they employ matter because they frame the way the world understands events. The reporting of Middle Eastern conflicts has the potential power to impact western...
View ArticleA view on Syria from the US: Obama's enemies scent blood
How did Obama find himself in such a rococo mess, pinned between haters in the House and his KGB rival? Barely a week ago, when Barack Obama asked Congress to approve the degradation of Bashar...
View ArticleWe can’t script the outcomes of war
In seeking to break with a past tainted by Iraq, the Syria vote entrenches the legacy of that war. So what next? Parliament was half empty for most of the Syria debate on 29 August. There was no...
View ArticleHow would Hezbollah respond to air strikes in Syria?
While the US continues to deliberate their course of action, so, too, does Hezbollah. After depending upon the Syrian regime for so long, how will they retaliate in the event of air strikes? The public...
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