Despite military successes against Boko Haram, Nigeria needs to face up to the unpalatable truth that military force alone will not win the deadly war, and start discussions about peace building.
In the 1990s Paul Kagame of Rwanda, along with Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, were considered the democratic darlings of Africa.
Reuters/Hereward Holland
Africa’s democratic promise of the 1990s has lost its shine. Hopes for accountable rule have faded in Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda. All have blocked the path to meaningful popular empowerment.
Winston Churchill famously suggested that: You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else. Speaking with his characteristic mix of the compassionate and cerebral…
Terrorist groups aim to incite both terror and power-projection. Such deadly tactics also hope to spark an over-reaction that will feed into their propaganda and divide societies.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals went beyond striking down the NSA’s metadata surveillance program; the court also created a road map for Congress to balance privacy and security issues
President Barack Obama and his inner circle follow the assassination of Osama bin Laden, which made headlines worldwide but is seemingly unimportant four years on.
EPA/Pete Souza/White House handout
Memories of the killing of Osama bin Laden are fading, but the legacies of al-Qaeda and the war on terror’s many ‘own goals’ haunt us in the form of multiplying threats and lost civil liberties.
Witness Carlos Arredondo (L) and bombing survivor Karen Brassard (R) walk out of the courthouse after Tsarnaeve’s sentencing.
Reuters/Brian Snyder
All of Boston was traumatized by the attacks on the Boston Marathon in 2013. A legal scholar suggests that this meant the man accused of the bombing could not receive a fair trial here.
American al-Qaida militant Adam Gadahn in a video grab from 2008.
REUTERS/IntelCenter/Handout
The death of al-Qaida propagandist and “traitor” Adam Gadahn, known as Azzam the American, got scant attention – just what the US government wanted. A scholar examines the definition of treason.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a handout photo.
REUTERS/U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston/Handout via Reuters
While the US still dominates global arms exports, Russia takes a close second as rising instability increases demand for the latest high-tech weaponry and surveillance gear.
In American Sniper, Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is the ‘sheepdog’ – someone who operates in a state of constant, anxious alertness against inevitable attack.
Entertainment Weekly
Many are decrying the film as merely conservative propaganda. But American Sniper – as with many of Eastwood’s films – has a more nuanced approach that addresses modern anxieties.
Dramatic moment as a hostage escaped.
EPA/Joel Garrett
The dramatic siege in Sydney’s Martin Place played out in front of a global audience through real-time reporting by mainstream news outlets abetted by social media. Australian media academic Julie Posetti…