The 2009 Iranian Elections: A Nuclear Timebomb?
For Israel, Iran must never have the ability to build a nuclear bomb. This is an immovable reality, and when the dust settles after the contested Iranian election of 2009, it will remain the principal issue for the international community to address.
Does Obama believe in democracy for all?
I have been running a few ideas through my mind and with a colleague about President Obama’s attitudes to democracy promotion and I think I have reached an understanding that I want to share with you. The paradox that has been taunting me is this dilemma between the idealistic tenets […]
Islam and politics In Nigeria
Many will exclaim: religious violence in Nigeria again! And the Western media has dubbed the current outbreaks as something new, with a label, “Taliban style” to connect it with its global narrative on terrorism. There was major religious violence in Jos last year, and indeed many cases before then. There will be new cases in the future. This brief piece will supply the context to understand the current, previous and future cases of violence.
The international politics of peak oil and energy policy
The abrupt rises in oil prices in recent years coupled with worry about the long-term viability of a fossil-based economy have prompted some writers to foretell the coming of a ‘new dark age’ of Malthusian proportions. Very little appears to abate the current and soaring demand for oil, even as world oil production reaches it peak.
Nuclear breakthrough for the Indian navy?
July 26 2009 saw a milestone reached by the Indian navy at Vishakapatnam, their eastern Command centre, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh formally launched India’s own domestically produced 6,000 ton nuclear powered submarine, INS Arihant. Has the moment arrived when the Indian navy achieves blue water status with a reliable nuclear deterrent?
South Ossetia and Georgia’s aggressive state-integrationism
Georgia has been guilty of aggressive state-integrationism, and, by its unquestioning support for Georgia’s ‘territorial integrity’, the international community fully shares the guilt for the bloodshed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia has squandered any moral claim to control the respective territories.
Fairtrade: Internationalism by Supermarket?
There now is compelling plausibility for fairtrade. Such plausibility might not be strong enough a reason to determine individual purchasing decisions – but it may prepare the ground for institutional safeguards and legislation that might one day make fairtrade a thing of the past by making sure all trade is fair.
The Global Politics of Intellectual Property Rights in the New Millennium
For nearly two decades I have been researching and writing about the global political economy of intellectual property rights (IPRs). In that time, intellectual property has moved from the margins of contemporary global politics to become an issue that most, if not all commentators and analysts recognise as being an important subject of political contest and disagreement.
The development of Human Rights in Communist China
Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, its Communist Party leadership has repressed dissident political views and organized political opposition. Nevertheless, today’s China is not the China during the rule of Mao Zedong (1949-1976), when people were persecuted and imprisoned not only for what they said, but for who they were.
Diplomacy and Russia’s de-democratisation
Russia is no democracy, nor will it become one anytime soon. The concern of most is now how to deal with the external power projection of an apparently consolidated authoritarian state. So the pertinent question for outsiders is not now ‘what kind of state is Russia’, but ‘how do we deal with Russian foreign policy?’
