Every ultra-rich person has the income of 100 poor people. But this is not Dickensian England or Depression-era America. It is the Italy of today. Halting the rise of the super-rich will be a crucial issue for the politics of the future.

Community organisatons, children's clubs, even doctors and health services, frequently lament that it is hard to get the people who most need help through their doors. The answer, a small charity in North-east England has found, is to get out on to the streets

NATO attempts to brush over the original intentions behind the Chicago Summit may prove successful, given an extremely able diplomatic bureaucracy and an environment with a short memory span. But despite 'smart defense', three crucial issues left off the agenda could spell the end of NATO relevance.

Europe's crisis is being felt at multiple levels, from the future of the eurozone and divisions between member-states to the rise of populist forces. But is the crisis likely to lead to the European Union's disintegration? The precedent of the Soviet collapse offers some lessons, says Ivan Krastev.

The 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia was portrayed as a beacon of hope for democracy and progress in the region. Far from developing society towards a free market, however, the current government has retrenched and its policies and programmes are redolent of a planned economy. This can only end badly, says Vakhtang Komakhidze

Can we imagine how real-time online direct democracy might improve the following: freedom of speech; the democratic process; the accountability of the government to the electorate; fairness and the rule of law?

The BBC is one of Britain's great institutions. But, like all other public broadcasters, it faces threats from the internet, the government, and the modern television system. How can it best overcome these challenges, adapt, and survive? 

The Coalition's economic 'Plan A' ultimately has a strategy of wage repression at its heart. This will undermine the conditions needed for economic revival but, above all, will impose incalculable human costs on the mass of British people 

OurKingdom announces the launch of a new six month debate on the most important cultural and current affairs instution in Britain.

45 years on, the International War Crimes Tribunal set up by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre is being used to address abuses of migrants’ rights in Europe. It is time to inject solidarity and accountability into the European migration regime, Jennifer Allsopp reports from Stockholm on Tribunal 12

European politicians are seeking to follow the moods of the public rather than to shape them. Europeans do not want Europe to fail, but Europe cannot rest solely on the actions of the German Chancellor, the French President, or the President of the European Central Bank.

We need to build a civil society voice to rival the corporate lobbies, which are protecting their lucrative stake in the price speculation commodities market. We have the choice to make this the decade where world hunger ends.

The UK's media and universities have for too long fostered a destructive antagonism. But in a context in which both institutions are facing vast structural changes, establishing a more productive co-operation is urgently needed to prevent these vital democratic bodies becoming mere instruments of capital. 

We are not arriving at a moment of choice between socialism and barbarism. Nonetheless, centre ground parties will repeatedly fail unless they can offer new solutions to the economic problems Europe faces. And there are new political players asking if updates are available for this system.

The UN system attempts to help in preventing armed conflict and protecting civilians. In the face of overlapping global crises, we may begin to understand the urgent need for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS).

There was a time when Britain's politicians were eager to show their moral convinctions. Now to admit being swayed by ethics is percieved as a weakness, whichever party you happen to be from.

The number of people in Colombia killed by US tobacco is way beyond the number of Americans killed by Colombian cocaine… Do they have a right to come to the United States and carry out chemical warfare on North Carolina and Kentucky because they have a tobacco problem and it’s coming from here?

Both Iranian and Israeli governments mutually benefit from the threat of war, as they both use the excuse to polish their propaganda and to silence internal opposition.