Leaving violence and conflict off the post-2015 agenda is a clear signal that countries want to keep the door towards increasing international accountability for the use of violence as closed as possible.

Arab parliaments have traditionally played a largely ceremonial and self-serving role in politics. But now, they must take a leading role in the renewal of democracy in the Middle East.

After two and a half years as Co-Editor of openDemocracy's British section, Niki Seth-Smith is leaving OurKingdom. Through intimate reflections, she gives an insight into the project, Britain's landscape of power, and the struggle against neoliberalism to come.

OurKingdom is looking for a new Deputy Editor, with a view to becoming a full Co-Editor. Details and how to apply below.

With a UN peacekeeping force soon to be deployed to Mali, what are the prospects for the recently created Dialogue and Reconciliation Commission?

The bloggers of Shahbagh are facing a backlash – hunted by fundamentalists, denounced in mosques as atheists, arrested by the government. Those abroad are under threat. Meanwhile activists are still demanding justice and cyber movements are using their mobilising power to deal with disasters.

In the face of growing spatial securitisation and colonisation of Hebron's occupied old city, a set of community initiatives have emerged which seek to build resilience, protect human rights, and counter the economic and social decline of the area.

The UK government entrusts security company rooted in the military with medical care of detainees on deportation flights.

'Domestic work is the beginning of all labour; it is central to our lives and is at the heart of our economy and society.' Three years on from her award-winning article 'Cry of a migrant', Marissa Begonia reflects on the ongoing fight for the rights of migrant domestic workers in Britain. 

Why did the terror watchdog with 'unrestricted access' appear to have only limited access to the security files on the government's secret justice bill, now shamefully going through parliament?

A comprehensive understanding of how, why and when opposition groups in civil war engage in civilian governance must have important policy implications for outsiders engaging or toying with engaging in Syria.

In a reply to Rahila Gupta, Celeste West argues that we can’t have meaningful feminism or a meaningful democratic project without ensuring that people have a chance to speak for themselves

Doctrines, deployments, and the political value attached to "nuclear deterrence" are being challenged at the NPT conference.  As 78 nations co-sponsor a growing "humanitarian initiative", the five NPT nuclear-armed states and some of their "nuclear umbrella" allies like Japan, Australia and Germany are in denial. Rebecca Johnson reports

Europe is increasingly unpopular, the recession hits the euro area and Angela Merkel is now facing a new populist party. So Brussels opens up to a timid change of season. But austerity has not yet been defeated politically, in elections and in the streets.

Up in Arms normally focuses on the figure of the soldier in order to track the militarization process. Here we visit the overlooked role of the ‘military wife’ as a key to interpreting far-reaching policy decisions.

What is missing is any serious discussion about the plight of the Syrian people. If it turns out that a red line has been crossed, then any intervention will be a geo-political intervention against the Assad regime. The likely response is to arm the rebels rather than to intervene to protect ordinary people.

This second of two essays on military spending and the EU crisis, explores the role of the European arms trade, corruption and the role of arms exporting countries in fuelling a debt crisis, and why these 'odious' debts need to be written off. See Part One here.

One might be forced to return to the  question posed, this time with a view to the current situation in Egypt. Do the Egyptians really understand democracy? 

In a region with a long history of nuclear and chemical weapons, when is a red line a red line?