Expert Comment

A summit between national leaders has a tendency to evoke high expectations for a breakthrough or at least some...

The news that over 60,000 US combat troops are leaving Iraq on the last day of August 2010, leaving...

The UK Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, has called for closer Anglo-French defence cooperation. Clearly, budgetary pressures faced by the...

Ayesha Khan has recently returned from Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari's indifference to the suffering of more than twenty million...

Here in Russia, low rainfall and searing heat - in some places the highest temperatures for 130 years -...

As a diamond smuggling investigator for the UN from 2001-2003 in Liberia, I saw at first hand the importance...

What seems at first like a relatively minor skirmish between the Lebanese and Israeli armies - in a border...

Only the hard-hearted will be left unmoved by the calamities that have rained down on Pakistan in recent weeks....

One of the most striking features of the new government's foreign policy has been its emphasis on reinvigorating the...

David Cameron's government has given clear expression in the past couple of months to its belief that Britain needs...

Over the last two years, Chatham House has carried out an in-depth study of the response to illegal logging...

Since the liberalisation of the early 1990s it has been unclear whether British governments regard electricity primarily as a...

World Cup fever has put a serious dent into any substantial media coverage of the G8 and G20 summits...

With the notable exception of the Franco-German support for the levy on banks, Europe's voice remains largely unheard in...

The seriousness of the current situation in Kyrgyzstan could challenge conventional thinking about US-Russian interests in the region. When Presidents...

The UK's role in the world is inextricably linked to its economic strength and prosperity. Maintaining a vibrant economy...

The renewed violence in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions of southwest Kyrgyzstan, together with April's déjà vu revolution seals...

As the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has amply demonstrated, growing global energy demand and the anticipated restricted...

Even by the merry-go round standards of succession in contemporary Japanese politics, 260 days is a remarkably short time...

Ethiopia's ruling party has already staged a victory rally in Addis Ababa to mark their satisfaction with the elections...

After a period of relative quietness, North Korea is back in the headlines. As ever, it is for all...

The ongoing stand-off between the Thai government and red-shirt protesters (supporters of the exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra)...

The announcement of the death of Nigeria's President, Umaru Yar'Adua, should not have come as a surprise. His poor...

Against an already fragile background for the European economy, volcanic ash has cast doubts over predictions for strengthened growth...

From an interesting start, this ended up being a very disappointing, even bewildering 45-minute half debate on 'foreign affairs'....

This article was originally published in The New Statesman >> The parties' key messages on energy and the environment echo...

This article was originally published in The New Statesman >> Defence policy has not often been influential in British general...

The new Start treaty signed by Presidents Obama and Medvedev in Prague is possibly the last rite of passage...

Kyrgyzstan, often the forgotten country of Central Asia, has once again come to the world's fickle attention. Of the...

Perspective can be the greatest casualty of a grotesque and barbarous terrorist attack, and terrorists invariably hope that will...

The following article is from the forthcoming April 2010 issue of The World Today. Chatham House has just released...

Violent conflict in the city of Jos - and in much of Nigeria - is about rights, access to...

South African President Jacob Zuma's state visit to Britain comes at a time when both countries are grappling with...

The 2008 financial crisis brought the G20 into the limelight and promoted it to firefighter-in-chief. In 2009 the G20...

The following article is from the forthcoming March 2010 issue of The World Today. Where does China stand on Iran...

The centre of the current debt storm is Europe, with Greece in the spotlight. Debt crises are always brutal,...

President Asif Ali Zardari and his entourage are said to be ritually killing one black goat a day to...

These are certainly hard times for defence. British armed forces have a demanding operational role in Afghanistan, and are...

The results just out for the UK's economy follow hard on the heels of those for China and the...

In the midst of a massive once-in-a-century global recession, and with its exports down by 16% (about 0 billion,...

The following article is from the forthcoming February 2010 issue of The World Today. The botched plot to bomb Northwest...

Most of Angola is peaceful and safe but northern Cabinda province has for many years been unsafe because of...

Today, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee published a major report on nanotechnologies in the food sector...

Although Europe and the US are out of recession and look set for at least a modest pick-up in...

We don't need a crystal ball to know that even the 'best case' at Copenhagen would not be enough...

President Obama has called for 30,000 more US troops to be deployed to Afghanistan to 'finish the job' and...

November consumer price data for the US and Europe finally showed an end to months of deflation, as year-on-year...

China has announced that it will set a 'carbon intensity' (the level of CO2 emissions per unit of economic...

So after almost a decade of discussing reforms to increase the effectiveness and profile of the European Union, last...

China is giving a US$ 8 billion lifeline to cash-strapped Zimbabwe in a move that will raise further questions...

Votes have been cast this week in Mozambique's general election. These are the fourth presidential and legislative elections since...

The UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets OFGEM has published what it calls 'a comprehensive review of Britain's...

It was feared to signal a loss of momentum, but the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh started with a bang...

While the government has begun preparations for next year's strategic defence review the party conference season serves as a...

In a series of Chatham House briefings over the past year, experts have argued firstly, that the recession would...

Preisdent Barack Obama is under growing pressure at home on his signature health care programme, in the eye of...

In a newspaper column published in Pakistan to mark the first anniversary of President Asif Ali Zardari's term in...

The Taliban represents a broad constituency from hard-core militants to local warlords who feel aggrieved by losing political power...

Afghanistan is in a fully developed condition of insurgency, with Taleban influence reaching many parts of the country and...

Jacob Zuma's visit to Angola this week is the first state visit since he took power. It is highly...

There is now little doubt that the international economic downturn of the last two years is likely to have...

With the death of another British soldier announced today, the ongoing political row about helicopters in the UK masks...

L'Aquila G8 is the first summit to take place since the Eurozone economic outlook was radically downgraded to reveal...

An unseemly turf battle broke out at the Mansion House last week over who should be in charge of...

A week is a long time in politics and never more so than in the Middle East. Barely two...

Iran's election was most likely a power grab coordinated by Supreme Leader Khamenei, Ahmadinejad's close colleagues, and IRGC leaders...

America's best hope of transforming from a superpower to a 'smart power' comes from its president and inspiring orator...

Why the UK Needs to Pay More Attention to how its Economy is Viewed at Home and Abroad For the...

By pursuing an unrelenting and bloody military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lankan...

Be under no illusion, a real upturn in the world economy is not yet in view. However, signs that...

With Madonna's latest adoption plea rejected by the courts, the small land-locked country of Malawi has disappeared from the...

Before he took office the US president, Barack Obama, had stressed that he would put Afghanistan at the top...

The international monetary system - and therefore the dollar - is once again in the spotlight. China's central bank...

The murders in Northern Ireland of two British soldiers and one British police officer make it clear enough that...

The attack on Sri Lanka's cricketers in Lahore is the latest in a line of high-profile incidents in Pakistan,...

Getting to grips with the full implications of this extraordinary recession has been extraordinarily difficult. Forecasts have been steadily...

The recent visit of Cuban President Raul Castro to Angola marks a turning point in the long-standing relationship between...

As he embarks on his Presidency in the teeth of one of the most brutal economic recessions in America's...

Russia and the European Union are compelled by a web of mutual interests to work together, but find it...

The bombardment and invasion of Gaza is Israel's heaviest attack on the small strip of land since the 1967...

2008 was a disastrous year for the world economy and the financial system, with risks multiplying up and breaking...

This time last year Kenya's presidential and parliamentary elections ended in a major crisis, resulting in ethnic violence, killings...

Quite apart from the scores murdered and the hundreds injured, what the Mumbai terrorists really wanted was an exaggerated...

5 November 2008 Chatham House experts offer their perspectives on the key foreign policy and economic challenges facing the new...

This era's greatest episode of financial irresponsibility almost brought capitalism to its knees. So where on earth was the...

The global financial system has suffered a once-in-a-century meltdown. Confidence is shattered and panic has taken hold. Even before...

The end of the summer break has seen the order of priorities for policymakers change markedly - gone are...

Like a recurrent nightmare the collapse of yet another Wall Street institution is a reminder that the worst may...

Two events have dominated recent headlines on Pakistan: the election on 6 September of Asif Ali Zardari as the...

At the time of writing, as they say, the ceasefire between Russia and Georgia is precarious at best and...

On 30 July, the Constitutional Court allowed the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) to escape a ban...

With Britain's Armed Forces stretched to breaking point in Afghanistan and Iraq, calls for a review of defence strategy...

The decision by the ruling military junta in Burma to accept foreign assistance appears less a break from the...

The agenda for NATO's summit meeting this week in Bucharest is sure to be long, and rather daunting. In...

How Radical Can Britain Be? The publication before Easter of the long-awaited National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom (NSS)...

The 'absolute' nature of the torture ban was affirmed today by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,...