A Fledgling Movement: Women and the Iranian election
This round of Iran’s pre-election politics was marked by the full-force entry of the Iranian women’s movement onto the political scene with a well-thought-out strategy that has mobilized many change-seeking individuals and groups within civil society.
“I am a Mutt”
For the last week at the Steinhardt School I have examined the historical narratives of local autonomy and pluralism in America. My particular interest in examining the evolution of the US nation-state has been the relationship between environmental conditions (structures of the state, society and culture) and the individual.
Defending the Revolution: human rights in post-election Iran
As much as the presidential election and its violent aftermath will remain a reference point to most Iranians and reformist politicians of how blatantly the rule of law and their human rights were violated, so will it continue to inform the mindset and policies of what now could be best described as the ruling hardliner elite of the Islamic Republic.
Racism and violence in Northern Ireland: Romanian Roma driven out of Belfast
The Roma, Gypsy and Traveller Communities are the largest ethnic minority within the EU, and one that has been comprehensively failed by various initiatives to end racism targeted at them. Northern Ireland in the bad old days had very little immigration, the tide was flowing in the other direction. Today, that it is no longer the case, but it remains a comprehensively segregated society.
Understanding the disturbances in Xinjiang
Xinjiang is economically and geopolitically important to China. It is the country’s number three oil producer and represents one-sixth of China’s territory. Given the significance of oil and the role of China in Central Asia, stability in Xinjiang is key to the Chinese state. The underlying factors behind the events of July 5, 2009, in Urumqi include cultural, economic and political dimensions.
Iran: “How to lose friends and alienate your own people”
On 12 June, the Islamic of Republic of Iran officially died. Even if hardliners in and outside the government thought that they could get away with the usurpation of the election without causing a major popular upheaval, it was evident that governance after “election-day” will largely have to rest on authoritarian rule. In fact, for those who have always advocated an almost totalitarian interpretation of the velayat-e faqih, this was the very motivation of rigging the election in the first place.
Cartoons and International Relations
Perhaps the energetic young folk running this interesting website might run more IR cartoons and, who knows, the ISA or BISA might invite cartoonists to talk on their takes on our world.
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?’
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.
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.
