How did Switzerland, a country attached to the importance of personal privacy, respond after the story about the Snowden leaks broke? How did the government - and the public - react?
The last two decades have seen a growing global appetite for peace but unless concerted, informed action is taken the next two could bring darker times
The interrupted campaign to eradicate polio worldwide reflects the spread of conflict and insecurity since 2001.
The Non-proliferation Treaty has survived for nearly half a century but it has not fostered nuclear disarmament—and it could be facing decay
If important new studies of social and economic failure can be fused with awareness of environmental and security trends, the chances of progress will be multiplied.
“Sustainable security” claims to address the causes of insecurity, not just symptoms. But when those “symptoms” are huge inter-state crises—as between China and Japan over disputed islands or between the US and Russia over Ukraine—what does it have to offer?
The east-west dispute over Crimea is full of tensions within as well as between each side. Its drivers include the chance to refuel older geopolitical ambitions.
Many new paths to climate action are being taken, with the global south in the forefront. Even modest support and publicity from their northern counterparts can bring huge benefits.
Since the Rwandan genocide and the wars in former Yugoslavia, the idea of a “responsibility to protect” vulnerable populations has acquired currency. The Libyan and Syrian crises have, however, seen the value of that currency recalibrated.
The issue of civilian casualties from armed-drone strikes in Afghanistan and elsewhere needs transparency from Britain's military establishment. Both legal and civic pressures are rising.
A parliamentary report on the UK's use of armed-drones in Afghanistan is, in its language and its attitude to casualties, a study in closure.
Vladimir Putin's vision of Russia's destiny has parallels with George W Bush's of the United States in the aftermath of 9/11. This makes the existing crisis over Ukraine even more acute.
