The bombardment of the city of Homs by Syrian forces, an offensive that has killed hundreds, is a key part of President Bashar al-Assad's attempt to crush an 11-month-old insurgency against his rule and defeat army defectors who have joined the...
eContributions
Daniel Mason 07 February 2012
Romanian prime minister Emil Boc has announced his resignation in the wake of three weeks of protests against the government's austerity measures. He said his aim was to "defuse political and social tension". Since mid-January Romanians have taken...
Léa Hannaoui Saulais 27 January 2012
Recent legislative elections have stirred Russian civil society to actively protest the Kremlin. Russian decision-makers cannot ignore the increased tremors and will have to adjust their policies to better reflect socio-political expectations and...
Daniel Mason 23 January 2012
Oil imports from Iran have been banned by the European Union as it steps up its sanctions in response to the country's nuclear programme. In addition the assets of Iran's central bank within the EU were frozen. The embargo forbids new contracts...
ISN staff 10 January 2012
International organizations like NATO, the UN and the WTO are being challenged from many quarters and for many reasons. But are these stresses and strains anomalies or not? Yesterday, we considered how some emerging and developing states perceive...
Justin Stares 29 December 2011
Europe is one of the biggest aid donors in the world, but Brussels is not flapping its fat chequebook in the face of Greenland out of generosity. It is not out of concern for Greenland's 56,000-strong population that the European Commission has set...
Abubakar Siddique 21 December 2011
Islamabad is preparing to turn a new page in its relationship with NATO, meaning the days of verbal agreements and secret arrangements appear to be over. Top government officials have been consulting with two parliamentary committees established to...
ISN staff 16 December 2011
Distinctly regional perspectives regarding effective multilateralism shape approaches to global governance. Today, we present a European and a Chinese vision of the role and future of multilateralism in an international system subject to...
Dean Carroll 28 November 2011
With world leaders preparing to meet in South Africa next week in an attempt to create a new United Nations deal to reduce global carbon emissions and replace the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012, a prominent scientist has urged politicians to "...
Joshua Kucera for EurasiaNet via ISN 24 October 2011
When it comes to dealing with the United States and NATO on security issues in Central Asia, Russia is acting tough while operating from a position of increasing weakness. Of late, Russia has tried to bolster the Collective Security Treaty...
