Syria’s forgotten pluralism and why it matters today
Apr 26, 2017 08:01 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
The Syrian Civil War has been raging for six years. It has killed nearly half a million people and left over 12 million, about half of Syrias total population, without a home. A few weeks ago, a devastating chemical attack...
Macron and Le Pen battle voter disdain as they square off for French presidency
Apr 26, 2017 07:58 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
The first round of voting in the French presidential election delivered a profound blow to the two parties that have dominated the countrys politics since the 1970s. Together, the centre-right Republicans and the...
It's time for France to face its past and debate crimes against humanity
Apr 26, 2017 07:55 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics Law
As Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen continue their quest to secure the French presidency, its time to ask what they think about Frances troubled past. French colonialism and related wars of independence and the...

Japan has turned its culture into a powerful political tool
Apr 26, 2017 07:49 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Much has been made of Japans recent turn away from pacifism and growing military muscle, but Tokyo is also extending its global reach in more subtle ways. Japan is especially serious about increasing its soft power, the...
Mexico's military is a lethal killing force – should it really be deployed as police?
Apr 24, 2017 13:17 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
There is nothing noble about war. In the words of the Spanish-American philosopher and poet George Santayana, it wastes a nations wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, and condemns it to be governed by...
What happened to the French Socialist Party?
Apr 24, 2017 13:05 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
The 2017 French presidential election was destined to go down to the wire and it didnt disappoint. The traditional political landscape has been shot through by the victory of two outsiders, Marine Le Pen, the candidate of...
Can we trust the opinion polls in election 2017?
Apr 24, 2017 13:04 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Political opinion polls have taken a bit of a battering in the past few years. There was wide agreement on the eve of the last UK general election that the outcome would be a hung parliament. Few pollsters saw Donald Trump...