Munich’s legacy: historical analogy as a tool in marketing foreign policy
U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, made a reference, on two separate occasions, to the Munich Agreement of 1938 as he endeavoured to elicit support for President Barak Obama's policy in Syria. During...
View ArticleThe cost of Syrian refugees
Recent estimates place the total number of Syrian refugees in Jordan at over 500,000. Zaatari refugee camp has become the fourth largest city in Jordan by population—it may not be much of a home, but...
View ArticleIn the wake of the German elections – the all-too-soon forgotten Euro Hawk...
Was it not Germany’s choice and commitment to be a civilian power? The German federal elections have run their course and the CDU/CSU gained the lion’s share of the public's support. Apparently the...
View ArticleHow to respond to the Nairobi terrorist attacks
Following the terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall in Kenya, there have been calls for the government to pursue a number of different strategies which, if they are implemented on their own, they are...
View ArticleWhy the enormous interest in the mothballed Euro Hawk drone deal?
In a recent Politics In Spires post, Tina Schivatcheva discusses the scandal surrounding 'Euro Hawk', the failed US-German drone programme. In the post, Ms Schivatcheva asserts that the German public...
View ArticlePolicy making in EU Security and Defense: A Q&A with Hylke Dijkstra
Hylke Dijkstra, a Marie Curie fellow here in Oxford, has brought out a book that is of considerable contemporary interest as the EU struggles to relocate itself more firmly in the world not only of...
View ArticleMalala’s Visit to Oxford
Pakistan has always been a divided nation—divided between the forces of progression and regression, between secularists and the rest, between those who believe in social equality and those who don’t....
View ArticleWhat an El Sissi presidency would mean for Egypt’s relations with the Gulf...
The announcement by Egypt’s Defense Minister, now Field Marshall, Abdel-Fattah El Sissi that he would be running for president was greeted with joy and with apprehension, not only in Egypt, but also in...
View ArticleThe insecurity of a security state: What can Hannah Arendt tell us about Egypt?
In Egypt, it is clear that constructive results are not going to materialise anytime soon. Increasing state violence, arrests and intimidation have no clear logic beyond an attempt by the security...
View ArticleCloaks of Invisibility: The latest frontier in military technology
Fiction and reality have meshed to incredible extents in the past decades, and it is no longer a surprise to see sci-fi-inspired inventions used in everyday life. The military field has been no...
View ArticleRare-earth metals: anticipating the new battle for resources
Natural resources are pivotal in international politics. They create patterns of cooperation, dependencies and alter balances of power. The battle for resource is most commonly associated with energy...
View ArticleThe “Aresian Risk” of Unmanned Maritime Systems
We are about to experience a substantial influx of unmanned systems into the maritime military services. On 17 December 2013, the Royal Navy launched a Boeing ScanEagle unmanned aerial system from the...
View ArticleAlgeria: Why Today’s Elections Are Essential
Today Algeria is heading for the ballot box. Algeria experts Mehdi Lazar and Sidi-Mohammed Nehad explain why today’s elections could be of central importance for Algeria’s political future. Since the...
View ArticleAvoiding Africa’s oil curse
East Africa is the global oil and gas industry’s hottest frontier. Barely a month goes by, it seems, without a major discovery in Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, or the eastern Democratic Republic of the...
View ArticleLessons from Afghanistan: Warlord politics aren’t always bad for democracy
“Without branding all generals and statesmen as murderers or thieves … a portrait of war makers and state makers as coercive and self-seeking entrepreneurs bears a far greater resemblance to the facts...
View ArticleU.S. Drones are from Mars, Euro drones are from Venus
Two years ago, on the way to a conference, I found myself sitting next to a gender studies professor on the plane. When I told him about my research, he asked: “What gender do you think drones have?” I...
View ArticleStabilising provincial Afghanistan: How to get It right
Kabul's ongoing presidential election negotiations aren't the only dramatic transition underway in Afghanistan. The ambitious U.S.-led "surge" launched in 2009, which bolstered foreign troops mainly in...
View ArticleOxford to Yemen: from literary scholar to tribal adviser
In today’s academic environment, two watchwords that crop up on most project target lists are interdisciplinarity and impact. Find out how both are being brought to bear on new research in the outlying...
View ArticleThe Social Contract 2.0: Big data and the need to guarantee privacy and civil...
Much has been written regarding the rate of technological innovation and how these advancements might provide solutions to the emerging challenges facing humanity in the 21st century and beyond.A...
View ArticleIs the Islamic State committing genocide?
Recently I had a chance to visit the Christian community of Tur Abdin in Eastern Turkey, a long standing community. The monasteries where I stayed dated to the 5th century AD. The people are generous...
View Article