The killing of Osama bin Laden and arrest of Ratko Mladic highlight the precariousness of international order and international law as much as their advance, says Martin Shaw.
The report of an expert panel finds evidence of serious human-rights violations during Sri Lanka’s long civil war - but also that the political and legal environment conducive to investigating these is lacking. This situation presents all those who seek to develop a principled approach to post-war
The agreement to international rules - from banking and trade to health and arms-control - is essential to global order. But the process of rule-making is at present undemocratic and prone to failure. The way ahead is to put dissent at the heart, says Frank Vibert.
The deep symbolism of the British queen’s four-day visit to Ireland - and especially her honouring gesture at a key site of modern Irish nationhood - carries a benign depth-charge for both countries, says Fintan O’Toole.
What is the “Arab spring” becoming? After three months of upheaval, repression and conflict, the democracy wave in the region, including Iran, is at a crucial stage. openDemocracy authors offer concise perspectives on a complex and fluid political moment.(The first contributions in this series wer
Spain’s supreme court has refused to register a new Basque political party pledged to non-violence, because of its suspected links with the banned terrorist group ETA. But the decision is more complex than it appears, says Guy Hedgecoe.
The changing dynamics of the Libyan conflict highlight the contradictions of "humanitarian intervention" when pressed to serve the western way of war, says Martin Shaw.
The evolution of new forms of governance in rural China is an important if often hidden part of the country’s major transition, says Kerry Brown.
The military intervention in Libya now threatens the Arab democracy risings. This makes diplomacy and demilitarisation essential, says Mark Taylor.
A comic duo in the Eurovision, a new hymn against high-qualified slave labour and a Facebook protest on March 12, brought back the dormant spirit of revolution to the streets of Lisbon.
