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Just published Iran: after the dawn, Nasrin Alavi China’s giant struggle , Kerry Brown The Gaza war and the Syria-Israel front , Carsten Wieland The four lessons of Gaza, Lucy Nusseibeh "The Kenya we want", Gérard Prunier Bolivia: after the vote, John Crabtree No hay mujeres: Latin America's long march , Kristen Sample A Russian corporal deserts to Georgia, Varvara Pakhomenko Solomon: wisdom or luck?, Tony Curzon Price

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Iran: after the dawn, Nasrin Alavi A campaign in mid-2008 in the Islamic Republic of Iran against "bad hijab" - scarves worn in a way that reveal a woman's hair and thus violate the country's rigorous public dress-code - saw many women arrested and an even larger number cautioned. At the time a university student called Shadi offered me a handy obstacle-course roadmap of Tehran, which she and a group of her friends had compiled. This contained advice on how to avoid the "annoying hassle" of arrest, in... more » China’s giant struggle , Kerry Brown The leadership of the People's Republic of China (PRC) faces economic and social challenges in 2009 that match anything comparable in the state's sixty-year history. The visit by China's prime minister Wen Jiabao to the World Economic Forum at Davos and to the Britain, Germany and Spain signals that in many ways this leadership is both more confident than ever, yet acutely aware of how its power is constrained by its interdependence with others. Kerry Brown is an... more » The Gaza war and the Syria-Israel front , Carsten Wieland The strategic and political reverberations of Israel's military operation in Gaza are being felt across the middle east. Amid intense diplomatic efforts to end the continuing violence and to agree a framework for Gaza's reconstruction, all the major players involved in the core Israeli-Palestinian conflict - including the United States and Iran - are sifting through the rubble in search of  opportunity. Carsten Wieland is a historian and political scientist,... more » The four lessons of Gaza, Lucy Nusseibeh The Israeli army's display of overwhelming force in Gaza during the three-week war of 2008-09 has not achieved its stated goal, as rockets continue to fall on southern Israel. This campaign by one of the world's best-equipped military machines, which killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and destroyed over 18,000 homes, has not been enough to provide the Israelis with the security they desperately seek. Lucy Nusseibeh lives and works in East Jerusalem. She is founder-director of... more » "The Kenya we want", Gérard Prunier President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya faced a moment of public embarrassment on 12 December 2009 when he was unable to complete his independence-day speech because of heckling from the crowd. But this was far from an opposition-organised ruckus. Some weeks earlier, his political competitor (and the prime minister) Raila Odinga could hardly speak to a gathering of his supporters who countered his slogan of chungwa! ("orange", denoting his party) with shouts of unga! (maize-flour, i.e.... more » Bolivia: after the vote, John Crabtree The Evo Morales administration won a clear victory in Bolivia's referendum on 25 January 2009 to approve the country's new political ground-rules. The "yes" vote achieved 61.43% of the vote, against 38.57% for the "no" option. The 411-article constitution is now due to be promulgated by the president on 7 February to formally replace the previous (1967) constitution. However, the results brought a clear "no" victory in the four departments of the... more » No hay mujeres: Latin America's long march , Kristen Sample Thirty years after the start of the third wave of democracy in Latin America,  the region's policy-makers and civil society have the "final frontier" of this historic process in sight: to ensure that democracy works for all citizens in equal measure, regardless of gender.   In Latin America there has in recent years been an increase in both the number and percentage of women in politics - embodied by the rise to power of two female presidents, Michelle Bachelet in Chile... more » A Russian corporal deserts to Georgia, Varvara Pakhomenko (This was originally published on the 3rd of February.) Nothing out of the ordinary - a soldier deserts his military unit. For anyone who has any idea what our army is like, there is nothing surprising about this. According to official data, around 2,000 soldiers in Russia leave their military units every year. Human rights advocates say that the real figure is at least double that.  Statistics show that most soldiers flee the army because of bullying. Only less than a year ago, the... more » Solomon: wisdom or luck?, Tony Curzon Price When Solomon became wise for suggesting a baby be split in two to settle a dispute, was he in fact just lucky? A short version of this book review appeared in the Spectator Business "Lucky", say Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff, the two jovial American business school gurus who have written the "Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life". The fake mother should have anticipated Solomon's trap. She should have protested as strongly as the real... more »