Regions

China&Canada

The Maple Leaf Brief: Canada's Soft Power and Why It Counts

By Dylan White

Soft power is widely understood as a state's ability to get what it wants through attraction and moral authority, rather than raw military or economic coercion. Canada is one country that has made soft power a hallmark of its foreign policy. So what is soft power, and what does it have to do with the "hard" dimensions of state power? China seems to be paying attention. Read on to discover why some in Beijing are recommending that the Communist Party take a page out of Ottawa's playbook.

Olympic Security

The Emergence of a National Police Counter Terrorism Service in the UK

By Arthur Hayes

The first edition of the UK Terrorism Analysis was published in early February 2012 by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). One particular section of the report, ‘The Post Olympic Challenge – Staying Secure’ examines the potential reforms to the UK national counterterrorism (CT) community once the 2012 Olympics are over. 

Drone

Drones and Targeted Killing, the Protagonists of America’s Modern Warfare

By Nathalie Van Raemdonck

On 10 January 2012, a predator drone killed five presumed terrorists in Pakistan’s North-Waziristan region on the border with Afghanistan. This attack signalled the resumption of drone strikes in Pakistan for the first time since late November 2011, when such actions were curtailed following a misguided NATO airstrike which resulted in the deaths of at least 24 Pakistani soldiers in the country’s north-east.

Egypt Muslim_Brotherhood

A New Dawn for Political Islam?

By Andrea Dessi

The political landscape of the Arab world has been fundamentally transformed by the events of 2011. After decades of sterile politics and engrained authoritarianism Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria have embarked on a courageous journey aimed at fostering inclusive societies based on the rule of law and accountable governance. While we are only at the beginnings of what will be a long and arduous process, it is hard to believe that things will ever go back to the way they were. To imagine a return to the political apathy that characterised  many countries in the region before December 2010 would be to ignore the groundbreaking social implications of the "Arab Spring" and the spectacular return of people power to the region. 

Scottish Independence

The Case Against Scottish Independence

By Roland Bensted

The political success of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in recent years, driven by the charisma of its leader, Alex Salmond, has brought into sharp focus the UK’s still nascent devolved authorities, in existence only since 1998. Furthermore, in the Scottish case, repeated public statements by Salmond about possible independence, with a putative referendum on the issue to follow in the next few years, have brought into question whether Scotland, after more than 300 years, will withdraw from the UK.

CCTV

The Reverse Panopticon

By Giulio Caperchi

Is the advent of widely available recording technology coupled with the mass distribution of content through social media platforms allowing for the democratisation of the state’s surveillance apparatus? Most of us fear the totalitarian dystopia imagined in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which citizens are controlled and stripped of private rights through the use of technologies enforcing total surveillance. It is easy to draw parallels with our world today, where the proliferation of CCTV devices and the use of surveillance drones by law enforcement eerily appear to emulate Big Brother’s tactics.

Sopa

SOPA and PIPA: Intellectual Property Protection At What Cost?

By Ramee Mossa

Last week, many websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and Google shut down or took action to protest two bills in the American Congress: The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). SOPA and PIPA are essentially anti-piracy bills whose main goal is to prevent access from within the US to websites which "engage in, enable, or facilitate" the infringement of intellectual property. But if these bills are passed, it could usher in an era of widespread censorship affecting every website in the world and with unforeseen political repercussions.