Fighting for the high ground

While the Baha Mousa inquiry "may have shone a torch into a dark corner", what is now before the court is more like "a stadium in which we will switch on the floodlights".

The youth of Shahbagh: A Bengali spring?

Dhaka has been witnessing a youth uprising against Islamism in Bangladesh. The UK is also witnessing daily events in solidarity with demands to end to Islamist politics, and punishment for those responsible for war crimes committed during the Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971

Europe needs principles for intervention

Why is Denmark involved in Mali? European leaders should clarify when, why and how to participate in military interventions and warfare abroad. Emerging security challenges in nearby neighbourhood regions, together with a waning Pax Americana, are obliging Europe to reconsider its future global role.

Urban security and the 'tricks' of endurance

Urban security is often thought of as strategies to protect and disarm city populations, however security may also be understood as endurance. As the multiple ways in which urban residents use their everyday experiences to survive in the city.

Warspace: Geographies of conflict in Beirut

The series of conflicts that besieged Beirut during the Lebanese civil war have radically reconfigured the social and spatial environment of the city we know today.

E1: Settlement in waiting

The proposed E1 settlement expansion into the West Bank, recently blocked by Palestinian protestors at the short-lived Bab Al-Shams camp, is likely to not only have serious consequences for a potential Palestinian state, but will also have a crucial bearing for the future of Palestinians in Jerusalem.

On strategies of spatial resistance in Palestine

The recent international coverage of the Bab Al-Shams camp depicted the demonstrators as mirroring Israeli settler tactics by creating ‘facts on the ground’. Whilst the comparison is not unfounded, it fails to contextualize the broader politics of space operating in Palestinian struggles against Israeli occupation.

Securing Bogotá

Bogotá's lauded transition from chaotic city of crime and violence to cosmopolitan hub of commerce and creativity belies the manner in which 'security' has been differentially mobilized over the past fifteen years, to stigmatise and displace the city's most vulnerable residents.

Rio's favela residents fight mega-event eviction

Gleaming plans for urban revitalization ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics include the not-so-shiny removal of thousands of families in lower-class communities.

India’s secret executions: necropolitics and government by stealth

India’s democratic futures lie with a sovereignty whose essence is freedom and imagination, not one driven by power, amoral sentiment and a death wish, argues Vijay Nagaraj.

Of myths, monsters and gods in modern Syria

Al-Khidr for the Alawis  - as well as for many other religions and sects - is one of God's righteous men; capable of performing miracles. According to the Alawi creed, he never dies.

Republican Youth and generational change in Northern Ireland

Young, post-conflict republicans, and the radical Óige Phoblactach, may hold the key to meaningful reconciliation across Ireland.

The Gulf States and Syria

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?

Laws of passion: the Shahbag protests

The second verdict handed down by Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal is life imprisonment. Now a death sentence is being demanded in mass protests supported by the ruling regime, with calls for violence that extend into Bangladeshi society. Yet the guilty verdict itself may be a far cry from sound.

Violence and democracy in Syria

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.

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