The United States's war in Iraq failed to curb Iranian influence in the region. The war's architects now seek to make Tehran pay for their mistake.
Does the pioneer of “gaia” have a point: could democracy be an obstacle to planetary safety?
The Washington-hosted summit on nuclear security heard Barack Obama warn of the fearful prospect of a non-state group using a nuclear weapon. How realistic is it, and how to prevent it?
A fusion of illicit money-making and radical politics is turning the big empty spaces of the western half of the Sahara into a profound security challenge, says Stephen Ellis.
The flight-disaster that consumed Poland’s president and dozens of the nation’s senior figures may be followed by a lasting improvement in relations between Warsaw and Moscow, says Krzysztof Bobinski.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s buffeting and the left’s advance in regional elections are less important than France’s profound alienation from politics, says Patrice de Beer.
The Barack Obama administration places drone attacks at the heart of its military strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But its enemy too is capable of making deadly use of evolving technology.
A decade of pitiless wars and brutal inequalities has made the arguments of the book “Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century” - first published before 9/11, and now in its third edition - more relevant than ever. In his 450th column for openDemocracy, Paul Rogers looks back and forwar
The epic wave of destruction on 27 February 2010 has tested the character of the Chilean nation and the reputation of two of its presidents. A month on, Justin Vogler recalls the moment and assesses the tragedy's political fallout.
The increasingly combative global stance of China’s political authorities is connected to the intense ferment of Chinese society in the society it governs, says Kerry Brown.
An intense controversy over Amnesty International's association with people who reject its universalist principles has been sparked by its treatment of a senior figure who raised the issue. Here, a global petition signed by prominent writers and activists poses questions to the human-rights organi
A seductive narrative of military progress in Afghanistan is spreading among United States analysts. The real story is more complicated.
