The United States in the early 21st century is caught in the gap between a potent domestic sense of manifest destiny and a shifting global political reality. President Barack Obama embodies the ensuing dilemma, says Godfrey Hodgson.
The signals of growing turbulence in a range of military environments - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and beyond - send a worrying message to Washington.
The trial of former Labour immigration minister Phil Woolas exposed the dark underbelly of British politics – but what could the guilty verdict mean for the future of campaigning?
The Caucasus is often depicted as a region of peoples locked in enduring and invariant nationalist enmity. The reality is more complex and therefore more hopeful, says Thomas de Waal.
The tranche of American military documents released by the WikiLeaks project contains a wealth of detail about the coalition's indifference to civilian life. But the materials also tell a deeper story of “how” war has killed in Iraq, says Martin Shaw.
A reductive and tendentious portrayal of Islam and its followers is spreading across Europe and America. It is all too reminiscent of the chilling world imagined by George Orwell, says Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
The rescue of trapped Chilean miners after two months underground inspired both national unity and worldwide acclaim. But as the afterglow fades Chile’s government faces an equally monumental set of tasks, says the Chilean scholar Patricio Navia.
The popular rejection of Nicolas Sarkozy’s abrupt changes to France’s pension system is rooted in the institutional and ethical flaws that underlie the reform, says Patrice de Beer.
A vital national debate about constitutional reform is under way in Ukraine. But the debate often takes no account of international political discussions or recent scholarly research. Can the new regime embrace this opportunity to lay down the foundations of a democratic future for Ukraine? Andrea
A delicate papal visit to Britain was in the end a diplomatic success. All the more reason to examine the ideas it advanced, says Michael Walsh.
The triumphant rescue of Chile's entombed miners is also, for the country's political elite, a turning-point in its history. But the narrative of instant renewal evades some of Chile's darker and more complex realities, says Malcolm Coad in Santiago.
