Spain's 11-M and the right's revenge
Two years after the 11 March 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid that killed 191 people and injured around 1,900, Spain lives in a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, most citizens have absorbed in a peaceful, non-vengeful way the overwhelming evidence that a transnational, radical Islamist network had targeted Madrid on that terrible day. On the other hand, a group of politicians, journalists and demagogues have attempted to poison the public mind by spreading paranoid conspiracy theories.
Britain's intelligence secrets: under the influence
The row over Iraq intelligence focused attention on the Joint Intelligence Committee, the top coordinating body of Britain’s secret state. But how does the JIC operate?
A victory for Spain, not al-Qaida
The proximity of the Madrid blasts and the electoral defeat of Spain’s ruling party has been interpreted as a victory for terrorism. For Ivan Briscoe in Madrid, this is a profound misunderstanding of what happened in Spain.
The electoral victory of Spain’s Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE), three days after the devastating train bombings in central Madrid that killed over 200 citizens, was astounding.
France and the Security Council: poker diplomacy wins
The lengthy negotiations leading to Security Council Resolution 1441 were a success for French diplomacy. France’s ‘two-step’ approach may not avert war on Iraq; but in deflecting the United States’ unilateral drive to war she has served the world’s interest.
Whenever France acts independently in the international arena and, especially if she fails to fall in line with the United States, the country is deemed to be a troublemaker. Viewed from Washington or London, we are an obvious ‘usual suspect’.
An appeal to International Law
The scenes from last week make the head and heart of any New Yorker ache. But they also remind me of a day in 1994, when the shoe was on another foot, and I watched a Sarajevan colleague struggle to come to terms with the infamous Markale bread-queue massacre. He, like me, lost no one. But for both of us, a family member could so easily have been there.
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Shock and Awe
Lest we forget
Syria's peace: what, how, when?
Cities in Conflict
openSecurity looks in the Iraq archive
M23 in Goma: who's resourcing the conflict?
Pakistan and Afghanistan into 2014
openSecurity analysis
Security and the far right
Following the publication of the winning recommendations of a “Your ideas, your NATO” policy workshop on the Arab Spring, openSecurity hosts a debate on NATO.
G4S: securing whose world?
