How should the ferment in Tunisia, Egypt and across the Arab world affect al-Qaida's thinking? The movement requested advice from the reliable SWISH consultancy, whose report is here exclusively published.
The new legal case against Italy's prime minister is also a test for a divided nation at a critical stage in its history, says Geoff Andrews.
The operational resemblance of aspects of the Afghan insurgency to the guerrilla campaigns against French and American forces in Vietnam is ominous for Washington.
The explosion of protest in Egypt has emerged from deep currents in the country's modern history. Tarek Osman maps the roots of tumult and the dynamics of the new political reality it has already created.
The popular uprising across the Arab world is shaking not just the region's authoritarian regimes but fallacies about the Arabs themselves. The consequences will be momentous, says Khaled Hroub.
The portrayal of Egypt’s uprising in terms of its potential capture by Islamists is doubly misleading, says Asef Bayat: for this misses both the true character of the people’s movement and the transformation of the Arab world’s religious politics.
The new age of insurgencies of which Egypt is an emblem has its deeper source not in the anger of the marginalised but in the system operated by the world's financial elites.
The change that is unfolding across the middle east places an especial responsibility on intellectuals to think civically and engage ethically, says Ramin Jahanbegloo.
The epic events in the Arab world’s heartland are also a lesson in the loneliness of power, says Goran Fejic.
Beijing’s promotion of a new strike aircraft may be less a powerful addition to its military arsenal than a sophisticated part of a deeper strategy.
The democratic mobilisations in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere are lighting a beacon across the middle east and north Africa. The way ahead lies through peaceful protest against extremism and authoritarianism, say Foulath Hadid & Mishana Hosseinioun.
The idea of multiculturalism has been subjected to greater criticism in recent years, especially on the grounds that it is divisive and undercuts other solidarities of society, class or nation. But a fuller understanding of the context in which the arguments for multiculturalism arose and evolved
