global security

International Security Correspondent Paul Rogers provides weekly commentary on the 'war on terror'. His acute commentaries are an indispensable guide to explaining the present conflict's development and mapping the future.
Friday 10th February

Syem Saleem Shahzad: death of a journalist

Nick Fielding, 10 February 2012
The Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad made both friends and enemies in the course of his detailed reporting of Islamist groups and insurgencies in the country. An official report on his abduction and murder in May 2011 may leave key questions unanswered, says Nick Fielding, but read carefully and in context it brings the truth of his end closer.
Thursday 9th February

America after Iraq-Afghanistan

Paul Rogers, 9 February 2012
Washington's military withdrawal from Iraq and problems in Afghanistan are forcing a change of strategy. Barack Obama's political fate will determine how far it will go.
Friday 3rd February

America, Israel, Iran: signals of war

Paul Rogers, 3 February 2012
A range of military and political developments, from the very rare planned deployment of three huge United States armadas in the Persian Gulf to Israeli fears of Barack Obama’s re-election, is evidence of rising danger around Iran.
Wednesday 1st February

Capoeira and security: the view from upside-down

Zoë Marriage, 1 February 2012
Through an account of capoeira, the Brazilian dance-fight-game, we uncover two simultaneous stories of security: first, the gradual monopolisation of violence by the state; second, a somatic, lyrical representation of a history of violence, oppression and liberation.
Thursday 26th January

The Iran complex: why history matters

Paul Rogers, 26 January 2012
A sense of enduring history and more recent experience of bitter conflict inform Iran's nuclear stance. To understand this could be a way to avoid war.
Friday 20th January

The thirty-year war: past, present, future

Paul Rogers, 20 January 2012
The prognosis of a thirty-year war looked outlandish as Saddam's regime toppled, persuasive as Iraq's insurgency erupted - and now less plausible amid American forces' retreat. But two core issues continue to give it life.
Thursday 19th January

Sanctioning Iranian oil

Reyhaneh Noshiravani, 19 January 2012
With increasing geopolitical instability in oil producing states and the barriers that stand in the way of reaching a multilateral policy, the threat of sanctions in Iran only serves to intensify uncertainty surrounding oil price forecasts for 2012
Thursday 12th January

Al-Qaida: an open endgame

Paul Rogers, 12 January 2012
There is powerful evidence for the argument that the al-Qaida movement is in decline. But there are other processes at work - including in United States presidential politics - that could yet create a different outcome.
Thursday 5th January

Iran in the straits?

David Madden, 5 January 2012
How are recent events in Iran to be interpreted? History has a lot to teach us, argues David Madden
Thursday 29th December

America, Israel, Iran: a dangerous moment

Paul Rogers, 29 December 2011
The tensions between Washington and Tehran are being further fuelled by naval exercises and discussion of strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. This makes the absence of a direct communications channel all the more worrying.
Thursday 22nd December

America, Israel, Iran: a shifting risk

Paul Rogers, 22 December 2011
A series of developments - in Iraq, the United States and Iran itself - nudges the balance of calculation towards an attack on Tehran. The additional danger is that this could happen by inadvertence.
Thursday 15th December

America, Israel, Iran: war in focus

Paul Rogers, 15 December 2011
The argument in America for war against Iran is often couched in religious-apocalyptic terms. But the decisive element in the end will be strategic and political calculation.
Thursday 8th December

A world in crisis: echo, need, hope

Paul Rogers, 8 December 2011

A fresh awareness of system-failure and resource-constraint draws on the experience and ideas of the 1970s. But this time the vision of radical change is real possibility as well as urgent necessity.

(This article was first published on 1 December 2011)

Thursday 24th November

The crisis and the change-makers

Paul Rogers, 24 November 2011
In the face of the world’s urgent economic and environmental problems, political leadership is failing. But from the ground up, new tools of understanding are emerging to fill the gap and point a way forward.
Friday 18th November

Kashmir: from national to human security

Wajahat Qazi, 18 November 2011
It is about time that saner heads in the Indian national security establishment mull over the implications of the continuation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kashmir, says Wajahat Qazi
Thursday 17th November

A world in protest

Paul Rogers, 17 November 2011
The global demonstrations of 2011 both highlight the reality of economic system-failure and reveal its linkage to the crisis of resource constraints. The result is a measure of the scale of change needed over coming decades.
Wednesday 16th November

Armed conflict, land grabs and big business: Colombia’s deadly pact

Kyla Sankey, 16 November 2011
The recent assassination of Colombian marxist insurgent group leader Alfonso Cano has been hailed internationally as an advance towards peace, giving Colombia a boost down the path to becoming the latest emerging market of Latin America. A closer look at the history and nature of Colombia's nearly 50 year-long armed struggle, however, tells us otherwise.
Friday 11th November

Israel vs Iran: the regional blowback

Paul Rogers, 11 November 2011
The prospect of an Israeli military assault on Iran's nuclear assets is growing. The scale and impact of any attack would be far greater than most observers expect.
Thursday 3rd November

Libya: victory, tragedy, legacy

Paul Rogers, 3 November 2011
The western military alliance sees the result of the anti-Gaddafi war as a vindication of its strategy. But the true accounting of Nato’s campaign - including on the ledger of arms companies - tells a different story.
Thursday 27th October

Mad men, nuclear pasts, human futures

Paul Rogers, 27 October 2011
The dismantling of a powerful nuclear bomb closes a chapter of the cold war. But the choices and responsibilities embedded in the story of the B53 make this a 21st-century story too.
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