The homegrown insurrection of a friendless people in Tunisia carries a profound lesson in the understanding of democracy-solidarity in the world as it is becoming, says Goran Fejic.
Pakistan’s society and government are under intense pressure from the growing influence of extreme religious movements. In the absence of enlightened and unifying political leadership the prospect of a great regression remains alive, says Marco Mezzera.
The influence of rising states amid the infirmity of the United States and other established powers will make 2011 a transition year towards a new global order, says Mariano Aguirre.
A wave of student protest animated Britain’s political scene in late 2010 and highlighted wider concerns about the future of universities. There is already a decade of European experience of student engagement in this area where the movement can find allies and exert influence in 2011, says Anne C
The air-crash which decapitated Poland’s state elite may owe something to reckless behaviour, official negligence - and the flaws of modern democracy itself, say Adam J Chmielewski & Denis Dutton. (This article was first published on 13 April 2010)
A narrow confidence vote in Italy’s chamber of deputies extends the turbulent career of Italy’s scandal-ridden prime minister. But the corrosion of Italian democracy under “Berlusconismo” goes wider than one man, says Geoff Andrews.
The contest between rival “Soviet” and “European” discourses fuels a dead-end debate about Belarus’s elusive national identity. It is time instead - whoever wins the presidential election on 19 December 2010 - to change the question, and find what Belarusians have in common. A shared archetype is
A powerful Chinese political elite fears those citizens who raise their voice against it. The case of a political prisoner in Inner Mongolia, as much as that of the Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, reveals the distance it has to go to temper strength with justice, say Kerry Brown & Natalia Lisenko
The loss of momentum in climate diplomacy reflects deep flaws in the way campaigners understand and frame climate change in relation to people’s lives and interests. There is both challenge and opportunity here, says Andrew Pendleton.
Ireland’s acceptance of international financial aid to its stricken finance sector is widely seen in the country as a shameful loss of sovereignty and the prelude to years of austerity. But there is too much hyperbole amid the gloom: Ireland is down, but most definitely not out, says John O’Brenna
The iron rule of Hosni Mubarak has dominated Egypt for three decades. The regime he heads is preparing for the succession and seeking to channel Egyptians’ hunger for change into a tool of retrenchment. The secular opposition is absorbed by the effort of staying in the political game; the Muslim B
