The international deal to combat global warming comes into force in 2016. For climate activists, it’s the beginning of a new stage in the struggle to hold nations accountable for their greenhouse emissions.
Beheading of men, rape, and enslavement of women—the destruction of a minority ethnic community is among the crimes committed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Will the group be brought to justice for its persecution of the Yazidis?
When Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the Roman Catholic pope in 2013, he took his name from Francis of Assisi and dedicated himself to championing the poor. The first non-European pontiff in a thousand years, and the first from the southern hemisphere, he launched his papacy with a condemnation of capitalism’s culture of waste and indifference to poverty.
In an extract from the papal encyclical Laudato Si’, the bishop of Rome makes an impassioned plea to save the planet from ecological destruction: “We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world.”
The Islamic State group is losing territory in Iraq and Syria, but it may have staying power in one of its three permutations: ISIS is simultaneously a movement for Sunni Muslim empowerment, a global jihadist movement, and an apocalyptic cult.
Europe’s response to the Greek debt crisis in 2015 exposed European cooperation and solidarity as a hollow claim. The euro has become a Greek tragedy, resulting in falling incomes, rising unemployment, and fraying social fabric. Saving the European Union may require killing the single currency.
Young, modern, and media friendly, the daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has recast the extreme right party as a less xenophobic, more palatable, movement. But if the National Front fails to shed its racist ideology, it is unlikely to build on its electoral successes.
Europe’s social and economic order fundamentally changed with the end of the industrial era in the 1970s. The resulting tensions led to an identity crisis, as minorities sought to address injustices and nationalists agitated against cultural and religious diversity. Is multiculturalism now destined to fail?
The current refugee crisis in Europe underscores the imperative of integration: to achieve healthy societies, immigrants must integrate, but they must also be offered a real chance to reach their full potential.
Europe’s security-driven response to the surge of refugees has been cowardly and xenophobic. There are more viable approaches: granting temporary protections, offering broader alternatives to asylum for those fleeing conflict, and adopting more flexible visa policies.
A century after the mass immigration of North Africans began, Arabs in France are more present in politics, the economy, and culture than ever before. Yet part of the French population rejects a shared history in favor of the myth of the “interior enemy.”
The Charlie Hebdo attack prompted an unprecedented collective response throughout France. Was it an admirable act of national solidarity in defense of press freedom or an outburst of xenophobia in a country that has lost its way?
In the midst of the Middle East turmoil, Arab diplomacy is strangely absent. Arab states must approach a changing world in wide-ranging agreement to reorient foreign policy away from excessive international dependence.
Veteran U.S. policymaker Dennis Ross argues that the U.S.-Israeli relationship is “doomed to succeed.” But a hardheaded look at the political, demographic, and ethnic changes in both countries suggests otherwise.
The 2016 race for the White House is the wildest, most expensive money and media circus ever. The price to become president? About $1 billion.
Donald Trump’s vituperative, outsider presidential campaign rallied voters anxious about the economy, national security, and culture. But establishment Republicans shouldn’t be surprised by the tumult in the Grand Old Party.
Despite Hillary Clinton’s reputation as a liberal, the record suggests her presidency would push America toward a more militaristic approach to the Middle East.
The great middle class is in decline, despite major growth in the U.S. and global economy. One presidential candidate’s solution: democratic socialism.
America’s Latino population, once a political sleeping giant, is poised to play a pivotal role in the 2016 American elections. And thanks to the anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric of Republican politicians, the Democratic Party could be the big winner.
President Barack Obama had to deal with a dysfunctional state system and fraying civil societies, as well as blowback from George W. Bush’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet his own actions and inactions throughout two terms of office contributed significantly to the great unraveling of the Middle East.
