President Obama to make crucial decision on Afghan war soon. Israel, Hamas close to prisoner exchange deal. Philippines declare state of emergency after political massacre. Second blast at Russian arms depot kills eight. All this and much more, in today’s security update.

Discussion of Britain's public service guarantees involved predictable fretting about "opening the floodgates to the vexatious, litigious and disaffected", rather than considering the people who stand to benefit from this advance

The future of Britain is at stake as the country heads towards an election year: a recent Scottish by-election gave Labour a surprising majority. Anthony Barnett takes this as the starting point for an exchange with Gerry Hassan on where a country with many parliaments is heading.

Border zones are potential incubators of conflict. Criminal gangs exploit weak state presence to forge a parallel state and prosecute their criminal enterprises sustained by fear, violence and brutality.

The long time Labour MP for Nottingham North issues a bitter, swinging assessment of the pernicious collusion of government and media that is strangling parliamentary democracy in Britain

The Kremlin holds that Muslim countries are Russia’s natural allies against the West. Yet this policy is riven with contradictions, reflects the distinguished commentator Walter Laqueur in this three-part review. In the first article he examines Russia’s foreign policy since the fall of communism. It has achieved little beyond preventing Muslim countries from openly supporting their co-religionists within Russia, he concludes

Rahimullah Yousufzai, the well-known Peshawar editor of The News International, has been covering Afghanistan and Pakistan for the past thirty years. Rare interviews with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar to his credit, he offers a deep insight into the evolution of the Taliban. Kaustav Chakrabarti spoke with him recently on the Taliban, terrorism and the future of India-Pakistan relations.

Peter Mandelson is drinking the record label kool-aid

I have just seen this and it seems all the more relevant today. No doubt if they try it again, it will be tasered first!

The EU is developing a full spectrum dominance system of surveillance combing domestic and military, according to a new report

Rwanda’s Commonwealth bid meets opposition on human rights grounds. Iran’s opposition resolute in the face of government crackdown. Iraqi government bypasses electoral veto. 21 killed in violence over Philippine elections. Algerian 9/11 suspect proved innocent. All this and more in today's security update.

Why does America take Palin seriously? The answer lies in gender politics, and in the history of right-wing populism. That populism is at its strongest at a time of social anxiety.

International pressure may be closing the Tamil internment camps now. But it must be sustained, or the cycle of persecution will resume.

Opinion polls suggest the US has got it wrong

Looking back on the shooting of three IRA members by an SAS squad on the streets of Gibraltar

In a small nation on the Western margin of the British Isles, amidst sheep and rocks and old mines, the world’s first popular movement for demarchy is beginning to test its strength

Can India and Pakistan resolve their differences and follow a course of enlightened self-interest in Afghanistan?

David Wildgoose's address to the Campaign for an English Parliament

Britain's alarming Digital Economy Bill