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Friday 12th March

Guns: the unending cycle of violence

Sarah Masters, 12 March 2010
The words of the women paralleled each other as they described how armed violence in the home and community, armed conflict, and the availability and misuse of guns feed each other in an unending cycle. These are not simple issues with easy solutions, but Sarah Masters says that this cannot justify apathy, silence, and inaction

Palestinian-Israeli talks in the balance as IDF locks down West Bank

Oliver Scanlan, 12 March 2010
The IDF locks down parts of the occupied West Bank as uncertainty looms over talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Thailand increases security measures ahead of protests planned for Sunday. The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma calls for a commission to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed by the junta. An opposition leader in the Gambia has said that individuals recently detained by the government do not know why they are being held. All this and more, in today’s security update.

The English: a people without a history?

Michael Collins, 12 March 2010
Of all Britain's peoples, the English have traditionally been the centrepiece of 'British history'. Nonetheless, argues UCL historian Michael Collins, it is they who have the most to worry about when it comes to their sense of the past

Is Russia’s judicial system reformable?

Alena Ledeneva talks to Oliver Carroll, 12 March 2010
In this interview for oDRussia, Prof.Alena Ledeneva talks to Oliver Carroll about the prospects for judicial reform in Russia. Medvedev’s efforts amount to far more than rhetoric, argues Ledeneva. Her ongoing research into the subject suggests that they strike at the heart of Russia’s informal system of government.

Barack Obama and America

Godfrey Hodgson, 12 March 2010
An inspiring candidate has become a failing president. But a comparison with Lyndon B Johnson shows that the reasons for this outcome are more than personal. Change had come to America before Barack Obama got to the White House, says Godfrey Hodgson.

Ten reasons to feel uneasy

Anthony Barnett, 12 March 2010
The launch of a new book brings together the reasons to fear for the future of liberty in Britain
Thursday 11th March

Climate science: a peace-studies lesson

Paul Rogers, 11 March 2010
The doubters of global warming are emboldened by their new ability - as in the “climategate” affair - to put climate researchers on the defensive. But the experience of comparable assaults on the discipline of peace studies in the 1980s suggests that hostile scrutiny can have longer-term benefits for the target.

Can lobbying colour our whole UK democracy?

Rosemary Bechler, 11 March 2010
One of the really insistent questions raised throughout the Convention of Modern Liberty one year ago was the one Anthony Barnett signalled in his opening invitation to participate: " What is the problem to which the database state and the surveillance society is... the solution?"

Don't sleep through the dawn of a new era in politics

Joel Cohen, 11 March 2010
Let the Battle for Politics commence.

Putting money where our mouths are

Lyric Thompson, 11 March 2010
Lyric Thompson, in her last report from New York, writes that as we close the 54th UN Commission on the Status of Women, there’s no mystery as to what it takes to close the tremendous gap between policy and practice: money. Best-laid plans are moot if not resourced. Invest in women. As the UN motto reminds us, it's our world.