Criminalisation of narcotics has little impact on consumption but creates a criminal class and a professional lobby of law-enforcers. Shaw describes this process from the inside.
After Copenhagen, can market forces – and consumers in particular – help address global warming? In an article originally published on chinadialogue.net, John Elkington looks at the promises and pitfalls of “green” consumption
Iran's history contains three millennia of despotism, but also three revolutions in the past century alone. The current unrest may suggest that another is on its way. It poses formidable challenges to both the current regime and the moderate reformist leadership
Hoxha's bunkers remind Albanian's of the destructive paranoia of their recent past. But they are being re-used and rediscovered by a generation for whom that history is now ancient
The kidnapping of Peter Moor has unveiled divisions and Iranian influence within the movement of Muqtada al-Sadr.
A new Russian army recruit writes home about life at a parachute regiment basic training camp
Two events that have taken place in the last few days in the streets of Italy have rocked the political stalemate, and exposed some ugly tendencies. What, if anything is the connection between them.
When legal-constitutional guarantees fail, public hearings may be the only option available to those who have paid the price for India's rapid economic growth.
Today, as Memorial receives the 2009 Sakharov Prize, Lyubov Borusyak talks to Ludmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, about the birth of Russia’s human rights movement. In 1956, after Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’, Russia’s people started talking once more, and circulating ‘samizdat’.
Climate change calls for a mobilisation of the population that alters our structure of motivations. And what of governance? It requires an eco-informed citizenry.
Seattle was a turning point for the developing nations, an exemplar of how major concessions can be won. But to bring the spirit of Seattle to Copenhagen, polar bear ice sculptures alone won’t cut it.
