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

- Walter Benjamin, 1936

Syria: the threats, costs, claims and lives

Phyllis Bennis 16 May 2013

What the civil war in Syria has exposed is that the massive political and social transformation, and real regime change under way is led by people themselves. US military involvement serves only to escalate the destruction.

Chemical weapons, the Middle East, the UN Security Council and now, Syria

Bob Rigg 26 April 2013

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

Bury the WMD-free zone and resuscitate the peace process

Edvin Arnby-Machata 10 April 2013

In order to achieve long-term security in the Middle East, it is necessary to address the root cause of conflict rather than its symptoms.

The end of Cold Start?

Ahmad Khan 10 April 2013

India's development of an offensive military doctrine after the 2001 attack on the Parliament was meant to create a strategic advantage over Pakistan. Has it worked?

Fear of escalation at the LOC

Haifa Peerzada 9 April 2013

More than 65 years after partition, a mediated resolution to the Kashmir conflict remains illusory. Fear of escalation between nuclear rivals has prevented all-out war - but what will finally lead to peace?

Revolution or civil war? The battle of narratives in Syria

Nadim Shehadi 29 March 2013

The main division in Syria is not sectarian or regional; it is simply between the regime as an overarching establishment and its opponents who are revolting against its totalitarian rule.

Nuclear weapons, basketball diplomacy and war in Korea

Charles K Armstrong 25 March 2013

While North Korea's nuclear threats towards the US remain in the realm of the absurd, the government's latest denunciation of the armistice agreement dangerously raises tensions between an inexperienced leader in Pyongyang and an untested president in Seoul.

Playing chicken with the Islamic Republic

Linda Heiden 13 March 2013

Threats of attack and sanctions have proven to be a double-edged sword, inflicting real damage on both the Iranian regime and its democratic opposition, with real costs for the fragile European economy and America’s strategic power.

Europe's Middle East policies: a southern European twist

Nathalie Tocci and Lapo Pistelli 25 February 2013

More coordination and strategy are needed in Europe's response to the sinister signs of stolen revolution. The political-strategic impulse has come from the south in the past. In the current economic crisis this should be more the case, not less.

In conversation: Syria in perspective

openSecurity 18 February 2013

Fawaz Gerges and Rosemary Hollis with Robin Yassin-Kassab at the openDemocracy conference Syria's peace: what, how, when?, discussing the regional proxy war, class dynamics in Syria, intervention and the costs of not negotiating with Assad.

The Gulf States and Syria

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen 11 February 2013

The protracted uprising in Syria has frustrated the Gulf States' previous ability to exert a decisive influence over the revolutions of the Arab Spring. As routes to aiding the opposition become increasingly complicated, will they lose their seat at the table in a future settlement?

Violence and democracy in Syria

Haytham Manna 11 February 2013

Is it possible in such a situation to face the threat of foreign intervention and yet make internal democratic change with the peaceful civil movement which started from Dara’a? I repeat, and say for the umpteenth time, yes, and yes.

Israel in trouble: review of The Gatekeepers, by Dror Moreh

Mark Taylor 21 January 2013

As Israelis go the polls on 22 January, Israeli democracy is in real trouble. At least that’s the message from a group of Israeli security mandarins at the centre of the Oscar-nominated documentary film The Gatekeepers.

Mali, dynamic of war

Paul Rogers 15 January 2013

The French-led military intervention in Mali both accelerates the war in the west African country and transforms its character. The prospect is of a long-term engagement that Islamist forces far beyond the region will see as an historic opportunity

Iran and the repercussions of US policymaking

Ben Campbell 14 January 2013

Western analysts often and articulately point out why the United States fears Iran. But what does Iran have against the United States? Do we understand why Iran is taking such a belligerent course?

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