China is moving towards a major leadership transition in 2012. A process that looks opaque is governed by clear if unwritten rules, says Kerry Brown.
The intellectual ground for an Arab democratic revolution was prepared in Syria a decade ago. But Syria’s leadership wasted the chances for a soft transition, says Carsten Wieland.
A local incident turned national conflict mixing anti-Roma sentiment and nationalist mobilisation reveals flaws in Bulgaria’s political order that demand a coherent response, says Daniel Smilov.
The rise of the controversial populist Julius Malema is shaking the ruling African National Congress, says Stephen Ellis.
An escalation of violent crime in Venezuela exposes both social fractures and institutional failures in Hugo Chávez's domain, says Silke Pfeiffer.
The Libyan war is often portrayed through a “tribal” lens that fails to explain how the country’s tribes coexist with a sense of nationhood, says Igor Cherstich.
The United States's capacity to build alliances and extend influence was once founded on confidence that history was on its side. No longer, says Godfrey Hodgson.
The Arab uprisings of 2011 can be understood as the striving for a new social contract founded on constitutional and democratic principles, says Ayman Ayoub.
A greater focus on pilotless armed drones as an instrument of war by the United States and its allies raises questions of political cost as well as law and morality.
Poland is hosting a summit on 29-30 September 2011 that seeks to strengthen the European Union's relationship with its eastern neighbours. The great events in the Arab world reinforce the timeliness of the effort. But the larger uncertainties over the union's future may delay real progress, says K
A triple diplomatic challenge to Israel from Turkey, Palestine and Egypt both reflects the region's political transformation and reveals the key flaw in Israel's attitude to its neighbours, says Khaled Hroub.
A near-decade of rule by Turkey’s governing AKP has reshaped the state and consolidated the party’s clear political hegemony. But this very success exposes serious remaining problems in Turkish democracy, says Gunes Murat Tezcur.
