The end of Lula’s eight-year presidency of Brazil is approaching. But the contest to succeed him is deeply marked by his political influence. A vivid portrait of the fluid electoral landscape, by Leslie Bethell.
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 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
The revival of Argentina’s dispute with Britain over the south Atlantic island territory owes much to the political character of Cristina Kirchner’s government. But it also reveals the distance travelled since the war of 1982, says Celia Szusterman.
Brazil’s presidential election of 2010 is the first since the return to democracy in 1985 in which Lula is not a candidate. The country’s emerging political alignment forms a big part of his legacy, says Arthur Ituassu.
The burgeoning international scandal involving the abuse of children by Catholic clergy is the biggest crisis for the church since the 16th-century reformation, says Michael Walsh.
Romania’s post-communist transition was captured by a political elite that consolidated its power, enriched itself and led the country into a European Union that preferred not to notice. Its people are the losers, says Tom Gallagher.
A shifting balance of calculation in the middle east makes Lebanon’s Hizbollah movement more confident in its strategy of “deterrence-by-terror” vis-à-vis Israel, says Robert G Rabil
