“Egypt is split” is how many Egyptians describe the current crisis rippling through the country. Before Wednesday night’s apparent military coup, journalists had reported on pro and anti-Morsi demonstrations…
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Foundation essay: This article on the debate over Scottish independence is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the UK. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and…
These days all you need to be a revolutionary is a mobile phone and a grievance. Some see what is happening on the streets of Cairo as the ultimate expression of democracy - millions of people using social…
For followers of British politics the narrative is familiar: populist right-wing party champions withdrawal from the European Union and a harder line on immigration and suddenly start pulling out remarkable…
The Bank of England is backpedalling after outgoing governor Mervyn King caused a furore just before his departure with a decision to put wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the back of the £5…
The fighting that has engulfed the Lebanese city of Sidon over the past week, leaving at least 15 soldiers dead and more than 70 injured, has raised tension across the country. The clashes come on the…
An illustrious predecessor of Barack Obama once wrote: “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” But Thomas Jefferson didn’t have to live with today’s 24-hour…
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act. The ruling allows the federal government to recognise same-sex marriage, granting gay couples…
When the recent textile factory disasters in Bangladesh revealed the conditions in which thousands of workers toil to bring the world cheap clothing, many of us decided we could do without some of the…
It appears that Britain is following the United States in its addiction to the use of prison terms. The USA has led the way in the penal arms race with the introduction of such measures as “three strikes…
The sentencing of Silvio Berlusconi to seven years in prison and a life-time ban from public office for sex with an under-age prostitute and abuse of office is a major setback for the former prime minister…
The recent Supreme Court decision to allow families of British personnel killed in Iraq to sue the government for negligence set up a barrage of cries about the judgment making it impossible for our armed…
Any time from this week, we may hear news from the government ministers assigned to solve the conundrum of press regulation. Consultation on one of the many royal charters which have been written since…
In the past 10 days big crowds of Iranians have taken to the streets to celebrate two things. The outpouring of joy for the unexpected first-round victory of Hassan Rowhani in the presidential election…
Death has a special significance in the history of art. Whenever artists die, a kind of art dies with them. Painting will survive Jeffrey Smart (1921–2013) but the kind of picture that he produced is impossible…
The tension between senior police officers and their elected masters has spilled over into the political arena after reports of chief constables being bullied out of their jobs and complaints of misuse…
Turkey has a stable government that has been popularly elected three times over the past 10 years. The economy is growing and the country is as close to reaching a peaceful solution to its long-running…
The revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been deploying a software tool (PRISM) that enables federal agencies to engage in the online equivalent of phone tapping have generated a…
The announcement by the United States that it intends to enter into direct negotiations with the Afghan Taliban represents a significant opportunity to manage the Western “exit” from the country by the…
Moors murderer, Ian Brady, is fighting to end his life. This week he has appeared in public for the first time since his trial in the 1960s. He has been force-fed for the past 13 years and is begging to…
How long ago did we acquire the right to privacy? When was it formalised? In this country it would be only in the year 2000, the year in which the Human Rights Act came into force; it incorporated the…
It started as a protest against a 20 cent hike in bus fares - but has quickly escalated into the biggest civil unrest Brazil has seen since the call for direct elections in 1983-84, which brought down…
When it comes to the thorny issue of Islamisation in Turkey, most external commentators focus on whether Turkey is becoming more Islamic in its governance, and what this would mean for Western interests…
While few would now argue against the importance of a diverse judiciary, do women judges, or judges from minority backgrounds, change the actual substance of judicial decision-making? In other words, do…
With the UK and France free of their EU obligations to refrain from providing lethal assistance to the rebels and the US now deciding that the time has come strategically and politically to do so, all…