Russian invasion of Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 Feb 2022 was the result of folly by the political leaders involved. President Putin’s stated reason for it (which does not justify his actions) […]
» Read moreCategory: Conflicts
Symbolic air-strike in Syria
Donald Trump has acted swiftly in response to Assad’s recent use of chemical weapons in Syria, by bombing the airfield from which the attacks had been launched. A failure to […]
» Read moreDemocracy under attack
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market on Monday, 19 December 2016. Angela Merkel, in a televised broadcast, expressed concern that immigrants might be […]
» Read moreSyrian Peace Process
On 12 February, after talks in Munich, world powers agreed a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria to begin a week later. Much subsequent commentary is dismissive, for example the Telegraph’s […]
» Read moreCombating ISIS
French President Francois Hollande reportedly described the recent attacks in Paris as an “act of war” by the organisation calling itself Islamic State (ISIS) – which has claimed responsibility for […]
» Read moreTime for realism in Syria
William Hague’s thoughtful article in Tuesday’s Telegraph (13 Oct 2015) is based on the mistaken assumption that a Western military intervention in Syria could be helpful. When you have a […]
» Read moreHopes for a UN relaunch in Syria
Yesterday President Obama made a speech to the UN in which he endorsed the aims of the organisation and offered his support to it as the best hope for achieving […]
» Read moreBeing provoked into intervention
Lord Richards, a former chief of Britain’s defence staff, is reported as opining that “David Cameron lacked the “balls” to take the military action in Syria that could have prevented […]
» Read moreJoining the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS or ISIS)
This week’s New Statesman has published an article by Mehdi Hasan, entitled How Islamic is the Islamic State? He argues that religion is not what persuades people to join IS […]
» Read moreWhat drives ISIS?
In an article entitled Iraq Illusions, published in The New York Review of Books, Jessica Mathews describes the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) as “only one of an […]
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