This year’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has stirred mixed reactions. The Norwegian Nobel Committee states that the organisation received the prize ‘for its work …
Debate: "General"
Sea state This week, the US Navy commissioned its newest nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Washington. The Virginia-class ship is nicknamed ‘Blackfish’ after the local Native American name for the killer whale. At the commissioning ceremony, …
During his 19 September address at the UN, President Trump criticised the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, the UK, Russia, the US and the EU). US …
I welcomed Andrew Davies’s critique of the Insight Economics report on the future submarine (PDF), of which I was the principal author. Davies substantially agrees with our findings about the major risks associated with the …
Last month, Chinese state media published articles commemorating the 30th anniversary of China’s first-ever email: ‘Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world.’ The email was sent from a research institute under …
Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 The Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 has passed both the United States Senate and House of Representatives. President Trump signed the bipartisan legislation into law last …
The humanitarian crisis afflicting Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya has damaged the country’s political stability and shattered its image as a country moving towards democracy. Moreover, it has tarnished the reputation of the government’s de facto leader, …
Americans do one great favour to sitting presidents—they re-elect ’em. Landing the top job is extraordinarily tough. Doing it is nigh impossible. Getting re-elected is the oft-recurring gift. Dating the modern superpower presidency from Franklin …
The world Sunday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas inevitably spawned an overflow of opinion pieces and analysis profiling the gunman. Was he a terrorist? And what was the rationale behind Islamic State’s unusual claim of …
In his much-acclaimed 1970 book, Why men rebel, Ted R. Gurr postulated that political violence could be explained by looking at social psychological factors. Gurr’s theory about political activism, and specifically political violence, centred on …
The three great attacks by the British Second Army in Flanders—on the Menin Road on 20 September 1917, at Polygon Wood six days later, and at Broodseinde on 4 October—revived the Third Ypres offensive after …
The recent meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May in the Estonian capital of Tallinn was a portrait in contrasts. Merkel has pursued openness and internationalism, and leads a country …