Twenty years experience in Central Asia informs Carlo Ungaro's view that the allies should radically devolve power in Afghanistan and reconsider its international border with Pakistan
UN condemns Israeli commando raid on aid-flotilla. Amnesty calls for inquiry into possible extra-judicial killings during Kingston violence. British troops come under US command in Kandahar. Russian delegation visits South Korea to assess Cheonan findings. All this and more in today's update.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka's support is waning — both domestically and from Russia — and he now looks the the most vulnerable he has done for years. Yet the opposition's failure to unite behind a single candidate still seems set to hand him victory in the upcoming presidential election.
Britain’s voters have forced a two-party system to begin to operate by a three-party logic. And it’s about to get even more interesting, writes David Hayes in Australia's Inside Story.
Please take a few moments to reflect on the relations between the United States and Israel in the light of a recent incident
An official directive that grants the United States army expanded counterinsurgency powers reveals Washington’s imprisonment in an exhausted vision of security.
The blockade has proved counterproductive with regard to all the major policy aims of the international community. The Quartet powers should encourage Israel to think about a better way to safeguard its security interests
Iran warns Russia not to back new nuclear sanctions. Car bomb blast hits outside NATO base in Kandahar. Israel violates Lebanese airspace. Conflict in Jamaica kills 44. Blast kills four in southern Russian city. All this and more in today’s security briefing.
The great contest of the United States in 2010, the one that will decide the fate of Barack Obama’s vision of national renewal, is not at heart about politics. It is a clash about the moral nature of American society, says Godfrey Hodgson.
Slavic reconciliation with "little brother Ukraine" has sent Russia starry-eyed, writes Andrei Kolesnikov. While Putin-Medvedev think they have regained an empire, the reality is that Ukrainian leaders have simply learned to do pragmatism.
What was the upshot of the recent Kiev meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents? Will the bridge between the two countries be built? Maria Starozhitskaya argues that, in spite of the agreements signed, rapprochement will be slowed down – and the bridge is not such a good idea anyway.
The key question as the conference enters the endgame is whether the P-5 nuclear weapon states are willing to drop their demands for the removal of so many of the disarmament commitments that are important to the non-nuclear countries, including references to a nuclear weapons convention or time b
