globalisation | openDemocracy

“Only war makes it possible to mobilize all of today’s technical resources while maintaining the property system.”

- Walter Benjamin, 1936

Nigeria, the Boko Haram risk

Paul Rogers 9 May 2013

Abuja's response to Boko Haram's insurgency is flawed and self-defeating. Without a change of policy, Nigeria will move ever closer to becoming a centre of transational jihadist struggle.

An arms craze: drones to lasers

Paul Rogers 2 May 2013

The United States, Israel and other military powers continue to seek the perfect weapon - from "unmanned aerial vehicles" to "directed energy". They forget how the story ends.

The dispersal of the al-Qaida idea across many national territories takes some pressure off the "far enemy", the United States. But developments in Nigeria could represent a new danger for Washington and its allies.

North Korea, the hand of history

Paul Rogers 18 April 2013

All states involved in the Korean crisis are influenced by their historical experience, but the recent past weighs most heavily on Pyongyang.

Afghanistan, the day after

Paul Rogers 12 April 2013

There are intense efforts to portray western policy in Afghanistan in a benign light. But evidence from the country itself, and the experiences of Iraq and Libya, suggest that hard questions should be asked about what is really happening.

A decade's war: legacy and lesson

Paul Rogers 4 April 2013

The United States-led "war on terror" has spread not quelled global conflict. The next decade will do the same, unless there is a radical change of direction.

Syria, war without exit

Paul Rogers 29 March 2013

The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is at the heart of Syria's destructive stalemate. This proxy conflict, with Baghdad providing crucial help to Tehran, highlights the scale of the blowback from the United States's war in Iraq.

Iraq, a war foretold

Paul Rogers 22 March 2013

The gap between the invaders' expectations and the reality that emerged in Iraq was immense. But even as the ground war opened on 20 March 2003, there were clear indications of the carnage to come.

Kajaki, saga of ruin

Paul Rogers 14 March 2013

The story of how an Afghan dam was planned, prepared, fought over and now abandoned symbolises the epic failure of the "war on terror".

The Mali effect

Stephen Ellis 7 March 2013

Many evolving disputes in north Africa and the Sahara fuse religious language and political impulse to powerful effect, says Stephen Ellis.

Wars on terror, lives in shadow: a review of Victoria Brittain

Paul Rogers 7 March 2013

The neglected experience of family members swept up into the vast detention-and-data-collection systems of the post-9/11 decade is illuminated in a valuable new book.

Mali, and remote-control war

Paul Rogers 28 February 2013

The Afghan model of future war based on armed-drones and special-forces is being refined in Mali. But the western states there risk provoking the reaction that defeated them in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Syria's war, Israel's trap

Paul Rogers 21 February 2013

The prospect of a chaotic endgame in Syria and more instability in Egypt is leading Israel further in the direction of a "fortress-state". This military entrenchment reflects not strength but vulnerability.

Drone wars: the Afghan model

Paul Rogers 14 February 2013

The transition to "remote-control" militarism by the United States and its allies is accelerating . Behind the reports of withdrawal, Afghanistan is already a template of the intended future.

The SWISH Report (22)

Paul Rogers 6 February 2013

The multiple fronts of an evolving war - from Yemen to Mali, Syria to Nigeria - have led al-Qaida to commission its chosen management consultants to assess its progress. openDemocracy again has exclusive access to the latest report.

This week's editor

Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

Europe from the bottom up

European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

A social Europe must be a political Europe
Bo Stråth

As Europe is provincialized: a reply to Etienne Balibar
Sandro Mezzadra

European debate

A republican call for a basic income
Daniel Raventos and Julie Wark

Nuclear non-proliferation

oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

Mali - the plot thickens

Remote control war

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