Secularism and Respect for Religion
Religion-politics separationist view, which is clearly normative rather than scientific, can take quite different forms, either as an idea or as practice and can be more or less restrictive, I shall call ‘secularism’. While acknowledging the variety of forms it can take I want to argue that one of the most important distinctions we need to make is between moderate and radical secularism.
Iran and Britain: The Politics of Oil and Coup D’état after the Fall of Reza Shah
Mosaddeq’s preoccupation with the nationalization of Iran’s oil sector derived from his belief that such a venture, once realized, could bring economic prosperity, national autonomy and political sovereignty in its wake. The loss of Abadan Oil Refinery dealt Britain’s prestige a stinging blow at a time when it was struggling to adapt itself to the disintegration of empire and come to terms with the ascendance of the US
WikiLeaks Revelations: The Implications for Diplomacy
Wikileaks is releasing hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic communications. But when the dust settles and the sensational tid-bits are forgotten, some of the longer-term impacts on diplomacy may in fact be positive. How so? The Wikileaks documents subvert the myth of diplomatic ineffectiveness, and illustrates that diplomats are in fact very busy pursuing interests, advocating policies, making contacts and managing networks
Academic Vampires
Originally, vampire disciplines found their homes within the humanities and social sciences. But they are quickly spreading to areas as diverse as law and architecture, terrorism studies and geography. Indeed, any discipline with some version of the “critical studies in . . .” genre has probably been infected by the vampire virus. And, if your discipline is still a vampire-free zone, expect the vampire advanced guard to come knocking on your door to convince you that your students majoring in transport logistics need to take a unit in “transport and society” or in “transport cultural identities”.
The Nigerian State and Peace Building Mechanics in the Niger Delta Region
The Niger Delta featured perpetuated human insecurity, lack of infrastructure, wanton ecological damage, and perceived apathy on the part of government and the multinational oil companies in spite of the significant contribution of its crude oil to the Nigerian and global economy. The core thrust of this paper is to examine the amnesty policy as a peace building framework for addressing the lingering crisis
Inside the Anglo-Saxon War Machine
Barack Obama and Gordon Brown were both reluctant warriors, boxed in by their respective military forces. Afghanistan was a war they both inherited, and at first underestimated, defining their position on it more by contrast to Iraq than on its merits. They realised soon enough that it was going badly. Casualties and costs were rising, the progress on development was stalling since 2001 and being overtaken by corruption, and public support at home was ebbing away
Water Insecurity in the Middle East: a Cause for Conflict or Cooperation?
The Middle East is a very complex region with many factors causing states to enter into violent and intractable conflicts. The region has been adversely affected by climate change. This has led to the entire Middle East becoming dryer, thus meaning that water volumes, be it in aquifers or river basins, are declining. Therefore, water scarcity is steadily affecting food supply.
Smart Aid for African Development
For over five decades, many types of aid have been flowing into sub-Saharan Africa, and yet there is a stagnation and perhaps even a failure of significant development in the region. Smart Aid for African Development, edited by Richard Joseph and Alexandra Gillies, contains essays from a collection of authors who attempt to address the reasons why aid does not seem to promote growth in Africa by explaining the constraints to aid as it is granted today, and elaborating on effective alternative approaches
The Euro and the RMB
As an emerging power, China’s role within domains of international trade, economy and politics has increased dramatically in recent years. Accompanied with the country’s increase in international weight, the Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) has become more and more significant in international financial market. Simultaneously, the dispute over RMB’s revaluation has recently become a recurrent theme
The Kautilya Way
In a land as diverse as India, the British championed the technique of divide and conquer for nearly a century. Three thousand years before British explorers even set foot on India’s coast, a warrior by the name of Chandragupta Maurya unified Indian heterogeneity and established unified India’s first monarchical dynasty of the Mauryas. This Bismarckian mission owed its success to Chandragupta Maurya’s astute political adviser, Kautilya.
