Donald Trump and Boris Johnson can claim victories in early 2020, but Brexit and impeachment may come back to haunt them and the far right later in the year.
Will 2020 Be Another Victory Year for Trump and Brexit?
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United Kingdom
Atoning for Washington’s ‘Mass Kidnapping’ in the Indian Ocean
The U.S. and UK governments forcibly expelled an entire population of islanders to make way for a military base. It’s time to let them come home.
The Hangover (British Version)
Why are voters here and in the UK abandoning “reality-based” politics? Because the elites who proclaim them abandoned the voters.
Does the Brexit Vote Mark the End of Internationalism?
Far-right nationalists and neoliberal capitalists will survive the demise of institutions like the EU. What about the rest of us?
The Falklands Referendum: A Hemispheric Balancing Act
In March 2013, Falkland Islanders will vote on a territorial referendum concerning their relationship with London. While the likely reactions of Buenos Aires and London are predictable, it will be interesting to see how Latin American states, which generally support Argentina’s claim in the name of regional unity, and Washington, which has struggled to remain neutral, will respond.
UK Takes the Lead in Somalia
The much-ballyhooed conference on Somalia hosted by UK Prime Minister David Cameron on February 23 was long on grandstanding but short on new substance. The meeting was clearly more about crowning a new leader (Britain) and celebrating the limited military successes against Islamist militants than about building a foundation for peace.
China and the End of the Monroe Doctrine
The British firm Rockhopper Exploration was the first company to obtain oil off the coast of the Falkland Islands in 2010. Since then, these oil deposits have raised the stakes of the historical territorial dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina over these islands located in the South Atlantic Ocean. A recent report by the pro-military think tank, the United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA), attempts to prove, albeit unconvincingly, that China could conceivably play a leading role in the future of this dispute.
The Politics of the London Riots
With homes and buildings vandalized, and communities literally reduced to ashes, it has become easy to dismiss the violence on the street as “pure criminality.” But such conclusions are naive and insufficient. Viral civil unrest should not be reduced to simple terms; the riots have many different elements. Although some rioters have been plainly motivated by opportunism, social, political, and racial factors are also at play.
Interview with Arun Kundnani
Arun Kundnani is a British writer and human rights activist. He is the former editor of Race and Class, published by the Institute of Race Relations in London, and is currently an Open Society Institute fellow. In 2009, he wrote Spooked: How Not to Prevent Violent Extremism, which explored the effects of the Prevent program, the British counter-radicalism policy aimed at Muslim communities. Here he talks to John Feffer of Foreign Policy In Focus about the debate on multiculturalism in the United Kingdom, the dichotomy between “good” and “bad” Muslims, and the status of the Preventing Violent Extremism program.
Blair to Brown: Something New Under the Sun?
Just over three weeks into the new regime of Gordon Brown, there is a new bounce and a sense of renewed optimism about these islands.