For the UK and beyond, the tensions between ‘green growth’ and the ‘steady state’ continue to battle it out as the main models of an environmentally responsible economy. As the UN's Rio summit approaches, the question of whether economic growth can be reconciled with environmental constraints remains an open one. 

The predictably low turnout of the UK’s recent local elections highlights the extent of Britain’s ongoing democratic deficit. Solving this by sortition - in which the populace are called upon to govern via a lottery - has been disregarded as a naive and idealistic fantasy. But Matt Hall argues this solution is more valuable and viable than its critics have suggested. 

Ahead of the Euro 2012 football championships, media attention on political scandal and excessive profiteering has undermined Ukrainian attempts to raise prestige in the eyes of the world. Janek Lasocki and Łukasz Jasina wonder if the hosts will eventually be able to defy critics and secure a positive legacy from the tournament.

The NPT PrepCom Review in Vienna closed by underlining the majority view that “any use or threat of use of nuclear weapons would be inconsistent with fundamental rules of international humanitarian law". In her final report from the NPT Rebecca Johnson says that the next few years may see some fundamental changes in how nuclear issues are addressed

Arab Awakening extends a warm welcome from openDemocracy to our columnists who will be writing This week's window on the Middle East. Each week, ten columnists based across the region will take up the challenge, 'You tell us', highlighting voices, views and perspectives as they reflect what is happening on the ground in their countries. To stay up to date with their columns, bookmark our You Tell Us page and follow the columnists on twitter.

A powerful new political movement bringing rural and urban Colombian civil society onto a common platform poses the real possibility for sustainable peacebuilding in Colombia. The reaction of the government to its emergence will be a path-setting moment.

This interview conducted at the Kennedy School in Boston was first published in Juncture, the new international journal of the Institute for Public Policy Research.

The clashes happening in Tripoli between the pro-Syrian Alawites and anti Syrian Sunnis, salafis… are not the only division that counts in that city.

While we like to talk about the BBC as a public broadcaster, the public’s only real role is to pay for it. Where does the power lie in the Beeb – and how do we take it back into public hands?

Just about everyone in Russia - the Kremlin, the opposition and most Russians in the street – agrees that corruption is one of the country’s most serious problems. Newly re-elected President Putin has promised to fight it, but where should he start, and what models in other parts of the world should he be looking at? Mikhail Loginov considers some of the possible alternatives.

Policies which treat nature like a private, consumable good may actually exacerbate problems of environmental degradation. We urgently need a more sophisticated understanding of the problem at hand.

The Deputy Prime Minister has revealed a strategy aimed at improving the life chances of disadvantaged pupils at state schools. A good start, but what is needed is structural change to Britain, one of the lowest ranking countries for social mobility in Europe.

Where the line will be drawn between childrens' rights and parents’ rights will always be heavily contested. Issues from the veiling of young girls to the manufacture of padded bras for seven year olds, may best be dealt with by upholding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

In the digital age, how does government deal with rumour in a crisis? After Fukushima, the anti-rumour strategies of the Japanese government led some to question which party, the masses or the government was more involved in the dissemination of rumours. Dominant political thinking considers rumours merely a threat to be contained. But if you allow emotions into the picture, you could reach a very different conclusion, one that requires a return to Rousseau’s general will.

Stability is a desirable outcome for all parties in the Mediterranean Dialogue. This does not mean returning to the failed policies of the past; our Atlantic Memo is rather a roadmap for maintaining a commitment to the burgeoning democratic institutions of the region.

Vladimir Putin’s swearing-in as President last week was accompanied by protest rallies that were brutally broken up by police, and their organisers imprisoned. But as the Occupy Abay sit-in and organised ‘strolls’ through the centre of Moscow have shown, protesters are gaining confidence and adopting new tactics. Journalist Tikhon Dzyadko, who was himself hurt in the recent clashes, reports.   

Ten ideas for lobbying David Cameron as co-chair of the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals High Level Panel

Big-but-piecemeal reform will only exacerbate weaknesses elsewhere in the Chinese system, since everything is connected... Fenby isn't just right about the biases and simplifications that are commonplace in airport-book ‘polemics’ about China - he is right for the right reasons. 

The link between ‘karamah’ and ‘al hurriyah”, the call for dignified existence and the rejection of oppression has given birth to a further crucial concept – that of the social responsibility of public authority.  This cannot be achieved by maintaining the economic polices of the old regimes.