Erwin van Veen - openDemocracy

How is Turkey answering its ‘Kurdish question’?

Ankara treats all Kurdish opposition whether peaceful or militant as terrorism. And it is taking its war into neighbouring countries

By Erwin van Veen

/ 11 Mar 2021

How is Turkey answering its ‘Kurdish question’?

It’s less about Iran and more about stability in the Middle East

History suggests that attempts to exclude such regional powers produce instability, or worse.

By Erwin van Veen

/ 7 Jun 2019

It’s less about Iran and more about stability in the Middle East

A European take on Warsaw’s anti-Iran show

Analysis of US diplomacy and discourse after May 2018 suggests that the administration has revived its 1979 Iran-pathology with a vengeance.

By Erwin van Veen

/ 13 Feb 2019

The return of authoritarianism is priming the Middle East for more conflict

How is the Saudi-Iranian rivalry overwriting the Arab Spring’s key messages?

By Erwin van Veen

/ 19 Dec 2017

From Ramallah to Paris: the Middle East’s forgotten conflict

There are issues the international community should consider in the wake of the Paris talks if it is serious about its responsibilities under the United Nations Charter.

By Erwin van Veen

/ 18 Jan 2017

A new pathway to peace? Danger ahead for Sustainable Development Goal 16

What is needed is the operationalization of a universal principle into a set of diversified strategies aimed at different categories of countries, and uncomfortable partnerships.

By Erwin van Veen

/ 23 Aug 2016

The Iraqi crisis: rethinking the narrative

An approach to Iraq focused on military intervention, with some humanitarian assistance, has defied the complexity of the domestic and regional kaleidoscope. No wonder it is failing.

By Erwin van Veen and Nick Grinstead

/ 22 May 2015

Syria’s raging civil war and the west’s inertia

The Syrian imbroglio is very difficult, not intractable—and the west cannot continue to throw up its hands in despair.

By Erwin van Veen

/ 25 Jul 2014

Yemen’s future: like Tunisia or Libya?

The recent conclusion of the National Dialogue Conference in Yemen might seem to point to progress in that fractured state. But the absence of the rule of law and impartial authority is allowing violence to fester and the international community needs to act decisively.

By Erwin van Veen

/ 2 Feb 2014

Gauging ‘success’ in Yemen’s National Dialogue: mission impossible?

An agreement in 2011 averted dissent developing into violent conflict. The National Dialogue Conference has made progress against a backdrop of drone attacks and terrorist strikes, but as the process draws to a close there is all to play for.

By Erwin van Veen

/ 27 Sep 2013

Guns, drugs and dollars: getting global drivers of local violence on the post-2015 agenda

Leaving violence and conflict off the post-2015 agenda is a clear signal that countries want to keep the door towards increasing international accountability for the use of violence as closed as possible.

By Erwin van Veen

/ 29 Apr 2013

Pride and prejudice in Heglig

The South Sudanese People's Liberation Army has moved into an oil town on the South Sudan/ Sudan border. While nationalist sentiment runs high, the newly separated states can ill afford renewed conflict: political dialogue is both difficult and urgent.

By Erwin van Veen and Ann Fitz-Gerald

/ 17 Apr 2012