Chinese dissident wins nobel peace prize

The Nobel Peace prize is awarded to one of China’s foremost dissidents. Mohammad Abbas is set to seek Arab League backing for suspending dialogue with Israel over settlement construction. For the first time, a civilian peacekeeper has been abducted in the capital of Darfur. All this and more, in today’s security update…

This isn't the end of the far right in India

To some observers, the recent Ayodhya verdict and lack of mass ethnic violence in India indicates the softening of nationalist tensions. But the subtler, more powerful and pervasive side of Hindu Nationalism in civil society will ensure that this is not the twilight of ethnic strife.

Afghanistan betrayed

An overly obtuse and childish mentality by the Allied forces in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2006 has had devastating consequences for the mission. After destroying the country’s fragile social structure and abandoning the Afghan people, Carl Unargo argues that we will once again betray Afghanistan while celebrating with false confidence its “democratic” institutions.

Pakistan condemns US drone use in north-west

Pakistan condemns US drone use in north-west as Pak-US relations hit new low. Attack on British Embassy in Yemen highlights declining security situation there. Ugandan president offers to send 20,000 troops to bolster UN peacekeepers in Somalia. Guinean officials agree to run-off presidential vote date after weeks of delay. All this and more in today's security briefing.

The AfPak endgame

Behind the escalation of United States cross-border raids into Pakistan and of Taliban attacks on coalition tanker-convoys lie the cold political reality of an unwinnable war.

Kyiv’s Next Image Problem

The vivid image of democracy - in colour orange - made many Europeans emotionally attached to the idea of Ukrainian EU membership. That is likely to change, writes Andreas Umland. The country is today facing a dangerous anti-democratic challenge — from the new President’s authoritarian turn on the one hand and from a new right-radical movement on the other.

NATO: fiddling with nuclear bombs while the planet burns

Next month NATO members meet in Lisbon to agree on a new Strategic Concept. Rebecca Johnson argues that if we treated nuclear weapons as the previous century’s problem to be disposed of, instead of fetishizing them as instruments of high strategic value, we would stand a far better chance of maintaining global security

Ayodhya: verdict and consequence

An Indian court’s ruling on the Hindu-Muslim dispute over the sacred site of Ayodhya sheds light on the relationship between two forms of rationality in India, says Deep K Datta-Ray.

A Jihadist census: ‘Al Qaeda-Affiliated and ‘Homegrown’ Jihadism in the UK: 1999-2010'

A new report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue has collated and published unprecedented levels of data on thousands of individuals implicated in Jihadist terrorism.

Chinese dragon versus Indian tiger

China's military and diplomatic expansion points to an intensifying arms race between the world's two most populous countries, argues Rajeev Sharma.

Targeted sanctions on Mugabe - should the EU appease Jacob Zuma?

The EU must not submit to Zuma's calls for the lifting of sanctions in Zimbabwe, argues Clifford Chitupa Mashiri

Ed Miliband: too light on Iraq

UK Labour leader Ed Miliband drew a political line under Iraq in his conference speech. But a future statesman needs to answer the dilemmas posed by liberal interventionism with more thoughtfulness

The success of Islamophobia

Today, we see that the rules of western European racism are shifting. On the one hand, they are becoming less racialist; on the other hand they are seeking to become official. How should we Europeans understand this, and how should we respond? In the first of her Inter Alia columns, Markha Valenta looks at the cross-continental emergence of Islamophobia.

Chechnya: choked by headscarves

In Chechnya there is official support for attacks on women when they are considered to have ‘flouted’ Islamic rules by not wearing a headscarf or covering up enough. Tanya Lokshina listened to some of the women’s despairing accounts.

From Helmand to Merseyside: Unmanned drones and the militarisation of UK policing

Serious questions must be asked about the use of military-style unmanned drones, pioneered in the war in Afghanistan, in domestic policing.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


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

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