China conducts missile system test following US-Taiwan arms sales. Optimistic poll raises hopes for Afghanistan. Israel plans new fence along Egyptian border. Iranian scientist killed in bomb attack. All this and more in today’s security briefing.
Behind the attack on Togo’s footballers in Angola’s enclave of Cabinda is a complex mix of history, geography, oil and politics, says Alex Vines.
The Copenhagen climate-change summit has been widely portrayed as a failure. But in a deeper and longer perspective COP15 is an important milestone, says Joe Smith.
A counter-terrorist policy that allows the revocation of citizenship and indefinite detention must be re-examined, says Wanda Troszczynska-van Genderen.
Spain’s tenure of the European Union’s presidency is a rare opportunity for its prime minister to make his mark on the international stage, says Guy Hedgecoe.
A series of intelligence failures that stretch from Afghanistan to the American heartland reveals the depth of the United States’s strategic predicament at the dawn of 2010.
President Obama unveils new reforms of the US security bureaucracy in the wake of a White House report criticising intelligence failures linked to the attempted Christmas Day bombing. A leading Iranian opposition politician is attacked by supporters of the regime. In the Philippines, fighting erup
Yemen’s foreign minister rejects possibility of US intervention in its battle against al-Qaeda, suggesting fears that US support might do more harm than good. Aid agencies warn of return to war in southern Sudan. Indian security forces bring day-long siege in Srinagar to an end with death of two m
President Barack Obama criticises intelligence agencies for security failings as airport security undergoes review worldwide. The UN food agency suspends operations in south Somalia. A suicide attack in Dagestan kills six people. Egyptian police clash with Gaza aid activists. Britain and France re
Iran's history contains three millennia of despotism, but also three revolutions in the past century alone. The current unrest may suggest that another is on its way. It poses formidable challenges to both the current regime and the moderate reformist leadership
Is there a good response to China's ‘resilient capitalist authoritarianism’?
The kidnapping of Peter Moor has unveiled divisions and Iranian influence within the movement of Muqtada al-Sadr.
