Ukraine has a new holiday – 8 May, Day of Remembrance – and a new symbol, the poppy. But 9 May remains, as a reminder of the fact that war is ‘never a pretty story.’
Expenditure reduction leads to falling household incomes, contraction in public services and a rising incidence of poverty, all without progress toward the professed goal, reduction in the nominal public debt.
A complex political triangulation links the Turkish president with the Syrian imbroglio and the Kurdish question, but his political target is receding.
Truth may well be the first victim of war, and fair-minded and dispassionate accounts of events in Ukraine are rare.
These are policies that, whilst having a humanitarian veneer, radically exacerbate the burdens of migrants and displaced persons from and in countries like Libya, Syria, Eritrea, and Somalia, alike.
The combination of expensive military projects at a time of austerity should, after the election on 7 May, create the space for an overdue rethink of the UK's international security policy.
Maidan could have set Ukraine's media free, but one year on, the press remains dependent on the oligarchs.
The conventional wisdom among nuclear-weapons powers is that their arsenals can only be dismantled multilaterally, step-by-step—yet the associated co-ordination dilemmas keep proving insuperable.
What are our values? Equal opportunities? Freedom of expression? Protection of human rights principles? If so, the US is building a frightening track record of alienating and insensitive behavior.
For political reasons, support for British militarism has been seen by successive Labour leaderships as a key test of seriousness and virility.
Shockingly, none of the funds that have been pledged by international donors have actually been transferred to Nepal. We know rapid response is possible when security or economic interests are threatened.
