For refugees in camps on the Thailand Burma border to be able to return to Burma, two main issues need to be addressed, the political situation, and the technical arrangements. Neither are even close to being addressed.
Individual posts in this week’s feature have provided a snapshot into a single issue. Collectively, they explore a crucial question: if Myanmar is undergoing a national ‘transition’ to democracy, what does this mean for a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, regional refugee situation?
A new socialist model is emerging in the western Balkans. Can its political vocabulary transcend the ethno-national dividing lines in the region?
Counterpoint presents excerpts from its citizen consultations in three parts of France where either the Front National has been successful or local tensions could fuel support for Marine Le Pen's party. Participants discuss when it would be appropriate to use local public venues for cultural event
Centre-left parties in Europe have lost the argument for pragmatic fiscal policy and support for austerity seems to prevail. So where does this leave those who refuse to vote for more austerity?
This could be the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Political life in Turkey is increasingly undemocratic and authoritarian. How can this institutional weakness be overcome?
While the international community’s attention has been grabbed by Ukraine, it should not overlook the latest events in Syria as Bashar al-Assad’s presidential ‘election campaign’ begins. The July poll is likely to increase, rather than heal, the divide between Syrians of all types.
This is a negotiation between Erdogan’s neoliberal and individualist Turkey, and a Kurdistan where communal threads, both radical and conservative, run deep. But Gezi and the Kurdish movement stand on the same side in AKP's divided nation and people keep coming to protest.
Greedy parties and fickle voters delay the advent of a healthy democracy.
The choice is so easily reduced to a zero sum calculation between security and democracy: the ‘apparatus’ having a considerable interest in making people feel sufficiently insecure to renounce the democratic process in exchange for security. An interview.
