SPOTLIGHT

Labour Economics: Economy in 2020

Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘Economy in 2020’ is admirable for the working class in its principles but ultimately has its flaws. Battered and bruised, with knees rocking after a haymaker, Labour’s current predicament within British politics resembles that of a boxer that has been tactically outclassed for ten rounds, it’s close to a stoppage. Granted, politics has […]

The UK response to the “refugee crisis” is theoretically sound but practically counterproductive

The UK Conservative government has a strategy for tackling the current “refugee crisis” that is theoretically convincing but practically contradictory. The strategy consists of letting as few refugees onto UK soil as it can get away with, whilst increasing efforts to tackle the source of the crisis. The former is implicit in the numbers: until […]

Sport

Athletics’ Quick Fix: How the politics of doping is taking athletics to the brink of ruin

June 2003 As most sport-crazy 9 – 90 year-old boys do, I began reading my copy of the Mail on Sunday from the last page to the first. But on this particular day, my eyes were strangely captivated by the side column rather than the main headline. “World’s Fastest Couple give birth to baby boy”. […]

The fall of oil and the environment


The Fall of Oil and the Environment Bane or Blessing? The recent rapid decline of the price of oil, from around $115 per barrel in mid-2014 to below $50 per barrel by August 2015 (Brent Crude), has prompted widespread concerns about negative impacts of cheap oil on the environment. These concerns can be roughly divided […]

Human Rights

Rufgee crisis: Lessons David Cameron can learn from Lebanon’s example

In the midst of the current refugee crisis it’s easy to get caught up in numbers. Germany is expecting 800,000 by the end of the year – and 500,000 annually for years to come. Australia says they’ll let in 12,000 and David Cameron announced that the UK will accept 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian […]


 
 
 

 

Italian politics in 2013: will it look like 1994?

Italian politics has always been a puzzle for foreign observers. For that matter, even Italian experts often have a hard time anticipating political developments in the country. The elections that are due for Spring 2013 are no...
by Lorenzo Piccoli
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International Political Forum

Keffah Ali Deeb: A Symbol of Syria’s Non-Violent Resistance Movement

When the Arab Spring revolutions first broke out, artist Keffah Ali Deeb was one of the first people in Syria to protest outside the Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan embassies. She joined other activists in standing up against S...
by Syria Untold
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WATCH: Why do they hate us?

“Itching to use force and then pretending it’s because we had no choice.” Bill Maher’s summation of American Foreign Policy is more than simply satire. It represents a view of the United States that many outside the Wes...
by Miro Ralston
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Clearing the Smoke, Part III: Monkeys Throwing Nuts

For this last part of my threefold contribution I will try to clarify what exactly is meant by populism, nationalism and independence. In my previous contributions, I have been rather harsh on both populism and nationalism, and...
by Gilles Pittoors
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After Losing the Parliamentary Debate on Syria, Should David Cameron Resign?

For the first time since 1782, a British Prime Minister failed to carry a war motion through the House of Commons. David Cameron’s failure to win a parliamentary motion to attack Syria is huge, particularly since the moti...
by Allison Midori Reilly
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International Political Forum

Central Asia’s Rulers View Turkish “Soap Power” With Suspicion

Back when the post-Soviet states of Central Asia gained independence, there was much talk of Pan-Turkism, a word that had been largely forgotten during seven decades of  communism and Russian linguistic influence. The idea th...
by Kanykei Tursunbaeva
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