As global public attention is turned to Bangladesh and the International Crime Tribunal, the country's complex political situation comes under scrutiny. Both main parties face a growing opposition from militant Islamism which thrives on local discontent as well as on appeals to global jihadism.
In 'sensitive urban zones' where a third of residents live below the poverty line and unemployment among young people is over 40%, it is difficult to see how people like Mohammed Merah can become part of France’s social fabric.
If Israel wants to keep Palestine off the map, so to speak, and exaggerate existential threats: what is the end game? There are days, viewed from Gaza, when one must feel an even graver concern for an already bleak future. And then news comes in from France...
The cynical manipulation of the category of ‘radical-Muslim’ in order to advance a political trajectory and perpetuate unqualified stereotypes is most unfortunate.
Is it inevitable that tensions between ethnic groups should degenerate into ethnic conflicts? The Kurdish/Iraqi case suggests that multi-faceted aspects come into play.
Criticizing the uprising, in itself, is not immoral. But what is immoral, is to criticize the uprising without declaring their solidarity with the Syrian people.
The Arab spring has cast Turkey back into the western fold and away from alternative alliance patterns which seemed to be in the pipeline only a few years ago. Turkey won't act in Syria without its western partners. Meanwhile it is the very incompleteness of the Turkish model which is of such inte
Why are Europe's fiscal technocrats so afraid of democracy? There is no evidence that good economics requires keeping European peoples out of the equation.
The failure of some elements of ‘the Left’ to see a real revolution even when it stares them in the face.
Fifty years after the 1962 war which left bitter memories and pending border issues, relations between China and India seem to be once more under strain. With both countries caught between the wish to negotiate and to compete, the bilateral relation appears entrenched in larger security issues
It is necessary for world opinion to progress beyond the crude binary opposition of the enemy image if we want to understand the true nature of the Iranian regime, and if we want to avoid war.
