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The Libyan uprising ousted Muammar Gaddafi. A government was put in place in the capital and it looked like democracy had arrived for good. Instead what followed was a breakdown of order and descent into civil war. Now after months of conflict the European Union hailed an agreement on Friday between rival factions to form […]
January 14, 2015
Washington hasn’t quite figured out the Islamic State (ISIS) yet. The Obama administration’s favourite approach, hands-free intervention using fighter jets and training Iraqi and Kurdish forces, isn’t working. The naïve belief that ISIS (or most enemies for that matter) can be defeated without boots on the ground stems from their belief that ISIS are too far […]
November 10, 2014
US foreign policy is in disarray. This isn’t really news – Obama has yet to put together a consistent international strategy – but the situation with the Islamic State (commonly referred to as ISIS) is especially uncertain. “The Islamic State’s success wouldn’t just turn the Middle East into a region with failed states; it would […]
February 25, 2014
From Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks to the phone hacking scandal, journalists are increasingly making the news. While the UK government’s response to the allegations of phone hacking, a judge-led inquiry, was measured, its reaction to the revelations brought forth by Edward Snowden has been thinly veiled panic. And the result is worrying. Under pressure from […]
January 29, 2014
By withdrawing its invitation to Iran to join the Syria peace talks, the UN has missed a golden opportunity that carried very little actual risk. After initially inviting Iranian delegates to the Geneva II Conference the UN rescinded its invitation after angry responses from the US and the Syrian National Coalition (SNC). Iran supports the […]
December 12, 2013
This week the US and UK announced the suspension of ‘non-lethal’ aid to Syria. This is because the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) is being increasingly eclipsed by Islamist rebels, some of whom recently united to form a 45,000 strong force. Humanitarian aid will continue to enter Syria through non-governmental organisations and charities, but direct […]
November 24, 2013
Talks among Afghan tribal elders are ongoing at the Loya Jirga this week over the prospect of the withdrawal of American troops in 2014. The outgoing President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has requested that any agreement should be signed after the presidential elections in April next year, however it is likely that a deal will […]
October 7, 2013
Iran is currently crippled by international sanctions as a result of the west’s distrust of its nuclear programme. Many believe it is trying to reach a stage where it could quickly acquire a nuclear weapon. This is something the Iranian government has strongly denied. During the tenure of former-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tensions escalated to the […]
September 29, 2013
The UN has adopted a resolution to securely dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons after Russia and the US reached an apparent agreement. This has been hailed as a victory for international diplomacy. It isn’t. It is merely just another move in the poker game that is Syria, or rather, the Middle East. At first glance […]
July 1, 2013
The Egyptian army has threatened to intervene if the present unrest is allowed to continue. The military has given political parties 48 hours to open a dialogue with the protesters that are filling the streets of Cairo day after day, calling upon Mohammed Morsi to resign. Today the Cairo headquarters of Morsi’s political party, The […]
A Field of Views 
January 21, 2015
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