June 2010 witnessed the opening of a new chapter in the history of the European Central Bank (ECB). Without any debate or decision-making process outside the closed doors of the ECB’s conference rooms, the Bank decided to extend its activities far beyond the field of traditional monetary policy.
Despite the euphoria that accompanied the toppling of Felix Dzerzhinsky’s statue in Lubyanka Square in August 1991, the power of the KGB, now the FSB and the SVR, has not declined. True reform of Russia’s security services, despite some early intent, has not happened.
The general consensus in the literature and the media is that the US is losing the ‘war on drugs’. Rates of consumption in the US have remained roughly the same over the last ten years and the drug trade remains a multi-billion dollar industry run by a complex international network.
Britain was certainly not innocent. Although it was not an overt aggressor in the run up to conflict, its policy of manipulation and inaction was very damaging. Britain may have not started the war but at the very least it did little to avoid it.
Predator drones, first developed in 1995, have been widely utilised during the Global War on Terror due to their ability to provide surveillance and combat capabilities for a relatively low cost and without risk to the human operator.
Security studies has seen drastic changes since the end of the Cold War. A heightened focus on the individual has brought about the concept of human security and caused a shift from state-centric to a human-centric approaches.
In a time of globalisation and complex interdependence, drawing upon on the ideas of past influential thinkers and adapting these concepts to current circumstances is beneficial to aid a better understanding of our contemporary world.
Many Africans wait for it to fail as its predecessors did, and mistrust its intentions. But the New Partnership for Africa’s Development has a set of ambitious forward-thinking goals and ideals and is an excellent example of what Africans can do when they come together to help the continent out of the mire of its history and dependence.
India and Pakistan’s transformational process of emerging as opaque nuclear powers was an example of different the different motivations, aspirations and ambitions for obtaining nuclear status during the Cold War era.
International courts as they stand are flawed, yet they have accomplished a great deal in making the international order less anarchic. It would be naïve, however, to assume that the relative achievements of international justice have eradicated the risk of genocide and other heinous crimes against humanity
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