A question asked on the radio impels the author to ponder about the absense of peace demonstrations in Israel, Netanyahu's and Abbas' visits to the White House and why matza is what it is.
The fierce conflicts of Turkey's last year may create the foundations of a new socio-political consensus, says Galip Dalay.
Euroscepticism is a strategically invented social construct – much like the myth of “ever closer union” itself – to capture and channel growing popular discontent with the aftermath of the European integration process.
Minstrels must demonstrate musical nerve, whether in Brussels or in their national headquarters. If not, they are just sycophant turncoats!
One key driver of escalation in the Balkans in the early 1990s also poses a continuing risk as the Ukraine crisis unfolds. That is the contribution of ostensibly 'democratic' processes - elections, referenda, even constitution-making - to inflaming tensions.
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.
April 20, 2014, marks the fiftieth anniversary of Nelson Mandela's speech from the dock at Rivonia. What is the legacy of that trial? What does it mean for South Africans and for all those who struggle today?
Chinese women face a resurgent crisis of gender inequality, argues Leta Hong Fincher in her new book Leftover Women. She talks to openDemocracy about the future of feminism under socialist neoliberalism.
Caught between the dynamic of the Arab Springs and that of the destabilization of the Sahel, the Algerian trajectory remains profoundly uncertain. Since its stability is essential for Europe, the stakes of the April presidential elections are high.
Algeria’s circles of power and their relationship to a complex society and history are hard to grasp. Francis Ghilès describes his own route to understanding the country in the post-independence era, when the heavy legacy of the past mixed with the confident idealism of the present.
In 1898, Hawaii was officially annexed to the US illegally under a joint resolution of Congress, with the US using the excuse of ‘military necessity’ in the advent of the Spanish-American War.
If the UN does not act to reject this precedent, it will contribute to an international erosion of faith in its own integrity and independence -precisely the kind of behaviour which the carefully crafted ‘headquarters agreement’ was designed to prevent.
