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 student movement in Britain against the government’s tuition-fees and spending policies faces inescapable political questions over the character and limits of democratic protest, says Martin Shaw.
Who has benefited most from the assassination of Rafik Hariri? As the UN special court on Lebanon arrives at its version of events, one Lebanese reading finds confirmation in Wikileaks for pointing us in a different direction.
The EU has missed a trick or two in grasping Russia's foreign policy potential, says Fabrizio Tassinari. If they returned to an approach of pragmatic tit-for-tat, the Europeans would have a far better chance of achieving their broader policy goals.
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
Propaganda damages a person or institution by contrasting them with those thought to be morally, ethically and politically superior. But the latest Italian smear campaigns aim instead to downgrade the victim’s reputation to the same level of the person or institution that he or she is trying to cr
The circus of football's world slut and the revelations on Wikileak about Prince Andrew's attitudes suggest that rock bottom is a trough of sludge and the UK is right down there.
Iran is again at the centre of international politics. Its diplomats are discussing their nuclear plans. Its nuclear specialists are being targeted in Tehran. Its Saudi neighbours are pleading with the Americans to bomb it. But most serious of all, the momentum behind an Israeli military assault o
