The lack of an organised and representative opposition, whether Islamist or not, serves to disadvantage the state; it cannot respond effectively to society's needs.
It should never be underestimated with the Saudi ruling family, the importance of regime stability at all costs.
Norway has often been cited as an example of what Britain's future relationship with the EU might look like. One of the most prominent Norwegian opponents to EU membership shares his thoughts on David Cameron's speech
Relying on the regional and world powers has proven to be a costly participation in a proxy war that is devastating the country.
Some say we should put Britain's complicity in torture and human rights abuse in Libya behind us. We cannot do so. Lessons have not been learned, victims still await justice, while the 'secret courts bill' would help ensure future abuses remain hidden.
Anyone familiar with the story of language in Elizabethan Ireland can only feel impatience – if not despair – at the latter-day triumphalism of works like Melvyn Bragg’s best-selling The Adventure of English.
Britain is at a fork in the road with a choice to make about what role it will play in the 21st century. Yet, David Cameron’s long-awaited speech about Europe is a miscalculation that will leave everyone frustrated.
Bookshops are places where the rhizome of culture breaks ground, connected beneath the earth but apparently separate on the surface. But in Morocco at least, something dreadful is happening to girls between the age of ten and 20, and leaching away their early literacy.
The combination of western advance and rebel retreat in northern Mali echoes the initial phase of the anti-Taliban campaign in Afghanistan. Britain's upgraded military commitment makes the parallel even more acute.
In the 1980s and 1990s, elite Anglo-American media sources cared more about Latin American abuses than those occurring anywhere else in the world. Why?
Like Greece, Spain and Germany before, Britain now faces a cathartic moment when she needs to decide what price it is worth paying to stay in the European Union. Coolheaded rationality must prevail over emotion in the debate that is about to begin.
This Saturday's election saw the victory of former PM Milos Zeman over current Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. The duel between a decried populist and an old-school aristocrat revealed a division previously unseen in modern Czech society.
