Lisbon Treaty: Hard lessons and new opportunities
by Chris OstrowskiWe are at last about to draw a line under the ‘Lisbon saga’ that has overshadowed the EU for the past seven years. When Tony Blair promised a referendum on the old European...
View ArticleAddressing the Baathist Legacy in Iraq
Ella RolfeOn Friday 29 January, the UK enquiry into the 2003 Iraq war heated up as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was questioned. For several weeks the British media had been speculating on...
View ArticleA rainy election trail in Iraqi Kurdistan
Ella RolfeKurdish party politics is a strange business. Driving through the city of Sulimaniyah in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region last Saturday evening, in torrential rain, I passed a political rally...
View ArticleTime for Turkish political renewal
(Published in the March edition of BN Magazine)As the UK prepares for what promises to be the most genuinely competitive election campaign for 18 years, Turkey is again mired in political squabbling...
View ArticleChange comes to Sulimaniyah
On the hillside above Sulimaniyah, there is a large luminous number. Picked out in white lights, ‘372’ sits on the hill at night like a strange pun on the white horses more familiar to the British. A...
View ArticleUp on the Hill is where you'll find us
We are now in the final stages of the pre-election effort in Iraq – and the day before the vote, fingernails are being sharpened.Last night another large rally honked its way past my apartment, this...
View ArticleVoting against Change?
It is six in the morning and I am sitting in the dark in my apartment in Sulimaniyah, huddled round the blue light of my computer. I have been up for an hour, and just before six the electricity always...
View ArticleEuropean leaders bicker over Europe’s economic future
Just what is going in the EU at the moment? The elation felt at the end of last year with the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, after almost a decade of difficult negotiations and three failed treaty...
View ArticleSarkozy saves the day at the European summit
There may be many captains currently manning the EU ship – Herman Van Rompuy as head of the European Council, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as holder of the rotating EU Presidency, Jose Manuel Barroso...
View ArticleFriends no more? The consequences of Israel’s disastrous act of high-seas...
Israel’s brazen and deadly assault onto the Gaza flotilla in international waters has created a crisis in Israeli-Turkish relations in comparison to which the accumulated history of recent bilateral...
View ArticleAfrica is coming of age
Dr Titi BanjokoAfrica is coming of age. 2010 sees 17 African countries celebrate 50 years of independence. Many questions are being asked by Africans and Non-Africans alike on whether the aspirations...
View ArticleHow would China respond to a double dip recession?
The Irish bailout and nervousness over other parts of Europe's economies again raises the question of whether we might see some sort of double dip recession, or even another global financial and...
View ArticleA politics of inclusion: An Interview with Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Given the recent upheaval's in Egypt the interview with Egyptian human rights activist Dr SaadEddin Ibrahim in FPC Senior Research Associate Alan Johnson's 2008 book 'Global Politics After 9/11: The...
View ArticleThe relevance of the ‘bread riots’ thesis for the Arab 1989
The first months of 2011 witnessed a remarkable emergence of ‘people power’ on the streets of Tunis, Cairo, Benghazi and Sana’a and many other capitals. People in North Africa and the Middle East have...
View ArticleThey or Us?
by Dr Titi BanjokoThe events of the last 6 months have recorded a number of firsts and a shift of power from the minority imposing their views and power on the people. But my late father used to say...
View ArticleCameron at the UN
Professor Jason RalphIf David Cameron thinks Libya has drawn a line under the uncertainty caused by Britain’s Iraq debacle he is mistaken.His speech to the General Assembly conveys the impression that...
View ArticleTurkey: A Country of Contradictions
Jonathan FryerIn foreign policy terms, Turkey is the new kid on the block: assertive in its support of the Arab Awakening and determined to be acknowledged as a major regional player. The previous...
View ArticleThe US, China and East Asia: 'Zero-sum' or 'win-win'?
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View ArticleSingle Market, Equal Rights Conference audio files
Here are a series of recordings uploaded to Youtube from the FPC, TUC and EU Commission Representation in the UK conference- Single Market, Equal Rights? UK perspectives on EU employment and social law...
View ArticleAll change in Georgia’s landmark election – but little change on foreign policy
Niall AhernNow the post-election euphoria has settled in Georgia, it is worth thinking about what, if anything, the election of a businessman with little or no desire to be in politics prior to the...
View ArticleThe Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the journey so far
Dr Titi BanjokoIn 2000, all member states of the United Nations and a number of international organisations agreed to work on achieving eight international Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were...
View ArticleBritain’s Relationship with Europe: Part 1
Niall AhernBritain its time to decide-In or out?As we enter 2013 there is one issue that seems to make the front pages year after year and that is Britain's question on whether to remain as part of the...
View ArticleBritain’s Relationship with Europe – Part 2
Niall AhernPart 1 on Britain's relationship with Europe focused on the growing demand for a referendum to be put to the British people sometime after the next election. Since that blog in January,...
View ArticleAshton's Egypt Opportunity
Onyekachi Wambu There are few options for Egypt following the military massacre and crackdown. The Muslim Brotherhood will be reverting to its default position as an underground organisation - but this...
View Article‘YOUrope Needs YOU’ Again – But What For?: A Critical Assessment of the...
Grace AnnanThe EU is subject to a significant change of personnel soon. Between May and November 2014, top positions in the European Parliament (EP) and subsequently the European Commission (EC) are...
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