In the wake of the global financial crisis a new international order is coming to the fore, writes Chris Luenen. What we are witnessing today are the birth pangs of a world of three regional monetary and trading blocs. The realisation is slowly setting in that once the global crisis has abated, globalisation, as we...Read More

Last Friday’s revelations about India’s use of torture in Kashmir are the latest in a disturbingly long line of stories that undermine attempts to portray India’s rise in the international system as a force for the global good. Following a period of transition that has seen a move away from Cold War non-alignment and a...Read More

Last month, Horst Köhler resigned as German president following a public outcry over comments he made in an interview that were widely understood as justifying war for economic reasons. Although it is clear that for someone in Köhler’s position to make the remarks he made is politically unsavvy, the disproportionate public anger his statement provoked...Read More

As one of the largest economies in the world, China is being asked by the international community to take a more and more active role in world affairs, ranging from contributing to stabilizing the post-financial crisis global economy to cutting greenhouse gas emission. Sometimes, Western approach toward China is contradictory or driven by political agenda....Read More

Voltaire remarked of Frederick the Great’s Prussia that “where .some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state!” The same can easily be said of Pakistan. The destruction of the army would mean the destruction of the country. Yet this is something that the Pakistani Taliban and their allies can never achieve. Only...Read More

With violence in Iraq having picked up again over the last few months – and set to further intensify with the country’s general elections approaching – it is time to rethink current Western strategy in Iraq. What is needed is a regional solution to the conflict, argues Chris Luenen. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.Read More

Although the British equivalent to the US Iraq Study Group, the UK Iraq Commission, calls for a major diplomatic offensive to bring about a political solution for the Iraq conflict, it lacks practical suggestions for implementing its strategy, writes Christian Luenen. In July, the British fact-finding commission on the Iraq deployment, the counterpart to the...Read More