Paul Rogers revisits the major shift in modern warfare which is the remote use of armed drones, and unfolds the Syrian-Mali-Niger dynamic of interrelated pressures on the international community.

Ulrike Guerot and Konstanty Gebert tell us that Poland may have replaced France as Germany’s most trusted European partner. Ana Stanic urges that the EU and Spain must remember lessons from Slovenia’s independence, noting the parallels between Spain and 1980s Yugoslavia. Daniel Trilling talks to Jamie Mackay about the prevailing myths surrounding the far right in Britain, while Cas Mudde insists that the victory of conservatives and nationalists in Flanders has brought about a newly challenging democratic landscape.

Rachel Clogg treats us to a roll-call of peacebuilders in the new cabinet in post-election Georgia, and peace talks begin between the FARC and the Colombian government, with Darynell Rodriguez Torres delineating the challenges ahead. Tim Wallis looks at an altogether new Philippines Peace Agreement, which builds peace on the ground first; while Jessica Horn brings together the counter-narratives of African women’s critical resistance, Engin Isin looks at "movements without frontiers" that are neither commercial nor protected, and openSecurity’s Andrew Wallis and Pete Jones, in English and French, address themselves to breaking the cycle of violence in the Congo.

In a vexed Middle East, Mohamed-Salah Omri asks if there is anything to celebrate, as the first anniversary of Tunisia’s post-revolution elections approaches. Amro Ali returns to Egypt’s Tahrir Square to investigate its rent-a-thug culture, and the lessons that arise for the Muslim Brotherhood, while Rita tries to fill out our knowledge on Syrian Salafis, and Vicken Cheterian takes on leftist analysis of events in Syria.

In his obit, Patrice de Beer chastises ‘armchair analysts’ too quick to make reductivist assertions on the life choices of Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia: David Chandler agrees that the King-Father is inseparable from his country’s history. Meanwhile N Jayaram notes that the shooting of Malala Yousafzai should not be used by South Asians to paint themselves as superior to one another in their treatment of women, given the levels of violence against women and girls in all South Asian communities.

Follow openDemocracy for more on a world that shifts, on the surface and beneath it.

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