The UK Government’s deafening silence is complicity of the highest order
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson On Sunday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab decided to change the job description of one of the Great Offices of State, in order to appease a racist. When…
It’s time to return the stolen jewels of empires past
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson Visiting London’s Victoria & Albert or British Museums, you see exhibition after exhibition of stunning ‘exotic’ artefacts from across the world. Take a second to think about…
Pandemics and populists: democracy’s ancient enemies
Illustrations by Felix Pawlyn The 2010s saw various pillars of global liberal democracy being swept away by a wave of international populism. America and Britain both fell prey to populist…
COVID-19 is set to deepen the global North/South divide
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson For many, the idea of a COVID-19 vaccine being on the horizon is a lifeline; a gleaming beacon in what has been an inarguably bleak few months….
Why has COVID-19 brought a return of Yellow Peril?
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson Last week Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering”. This effect of the…
The Transnational Politician
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson In this day and age, we are all too used to transnational corporations. Transnational politicians, however, are a rare occurrence. Domestic politics is something we hold very…
Lockdown and Brexit present a challenge of conflicting ideals for Johnson
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson The UK economy is currently facing several severe challenges. Pre- COVID-19, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced that public spending would have to increase in…
What can we learn about COVID-19 from the 430BC Athenian Plague?
Illustration by Felix Pawlyn This time round, will the pandemic be a case of survival of the fitness or the richest? The 430BC Athenian plague is our earliest ever record…
This pandemic could result in the death of neoliberalism
Illustration by Hannah Robinson The apocalypse jokes are wearing thin, and most of us are now settling down into a new, changed reality. It is rapidly becoming clear that the economic…
Covid-19 Fashion
An illustrated feature on coronavirus masks by our resident illustrator Hannah Robinson.
From Brexit to a new EU enlargement
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Less than a week after Brexit, the EU Commission released a paper on the new enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans. Since 2013 and the accession of…
China continues to use Xinjiang and Tibet as pawns in its global growth
Illustration by Hannah Robinson The author of this piece has asked to remain anonymous so to protect their freedom travelling to and from China. A BBC exposé in October 2018 reported…
Chinese repression of the Uighurs must be reported, and reported accurately
Illustration by Hannah Robinson After the New York Times article of November 16 2019 concerning ethnic minority detention camps in the north-west region of China, the spotlight was once again turned…
Iran vows “severe revenge”; but who will actually suffer?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Following the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani the world has, quite frankly, gone into a spin. Three days into the new year and Trump is tweeting…
The Iranian authorities are murdering Iranian people
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Iranians have been peacefully protesting an unprecedented hike in fuel prices since November 15. Since then, protests have spiralled into desperate calls for regime overhaul, as…
A ‘Remain Alliance’ should learn from Spain
Illustration by Hannah Robinson There is a land, somewhere, that had a minority government. Its Parliament was plagued by indecision and a frustrating lack of consensus. The people, electorally fatigued…
Why is France vetoing North Macedonia’s accession to the EU?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Macedonia became a candidate for accession to the EU in 2005 but one of the main barriers to its accession to the EU lay in its…
Lebanon: the revenge of a new generation
Illustration by Hannah Robinson They don’t want a civil war. Nor do they wish to overthrow their governments by force. What they insist on is a democratic transition and, most…
UK students living in the EU: up the creek without a paddle
Illustration by Hannah Robinson UK students living in the Netherlands feel stranded due to Brexit. Words such as university, student, academic or science do not appear in the 585-page draft…
The depressing future of US military strategy?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson US military planners, wary of what the future holds, are turning their focus away from counterinsurgency operations, the central focus of combat operations since late 2003,…
The new European Commission should learn from their predecessors
Ursula von der Leyen will take over the Commission Presidency from Jean-Claude Juncker on 1 November. This week she nominated her choices for positions in the various Directorates-General. Will her…
Iran are using dual nationals as political pawns, and we are letting them
Nine months ago, I wrote about British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe being falsely imprisoned in Iran; this week, she has been moved from her cell to a psychiatric ward. Nazanin…
The Europa League shows us how sports are always political
It is impossible to imagine sport and politics separately from each other. Even during the Ancient Olympic games the sport was considered not only as an entertainment, but also an…
The importance of voting in the European elections
On Thursday, people across the EU will have the opportunity to vote in European elections; the United Kingdom is included in this. Whether you want to leave or remain in…
The need for a new British military strategy
One of the necessary debates for a Post-Brexit World is the reexamination of the role that Britain seeks to play on the military stage of the world. The public needs…
Looking back down the Persian Path: In place of a conclusion
The fourth and final part of the Persian Path series, on Iran, its history, and dissidents. See here for the third part. This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the…
Coexistence is the tonic for a more tolerant society
This visual called ‘Coexist’ was created by a Polish graphic designer Piotr Młodożeniec back in 2000 for an international art competition. Since then, it has become a bumper sticker on…
Down the Persian Path: imperialism and hypocrisy
Part three of the Persian Path series, on Iran, its history, and dissidents. See here for the second part. Gazing upon the West’s actions and inactions concerning Iran makes for…
Genocide must never become a political plaything
24 April is marked with black in the calendars of Armenians all around the world. On this day, Armenians living inside and outside their homeland remember those who died in…
Down The Persian Path: The Path of Resistance
Part two of the Persian Path series, on Iran, its history, and dissidents. See here for the first part. ‘Why the fuck would you want to go to that bastard’s…
A glimmer of hope amidst the authoritarian resurgence
Last year’s authoritarian surge has spilt over into 2019; from Xi Jinping’s power grab in March 2018 to secure the presidency for life, ending any debate over China’s liberalisation, to…
AUMF is America’s blank cheque for war
Since 2001, the United States has been engaged in the nebulous War on Terror, a war with no clarity nor end in sight. The legal justification for this forever-war is…
Down the Persian Path: The Path of History
Part one of the Persian Path series, on Iran, its history, and dissidents. The regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran would not have approved of the medieval Persian poet…
North Korea needs to reform, but how?
Regime changes, from communism to capitalism, can take many shapes. In the best cases, we might see a peaceful transition into democracy in a way akin to the Velvet Revolution…
Laughing at Shamima Begum is inexcusable
When I think about the complex layers of Shamima Begum’s case, it sickens me that it, and she, is becoming the butt of a national joke. Yes, she was part…
Are small kingdoms more successful?
Once upon a time there was a pocket-sized fairy tale kingdom overlooked by student backpackers and glamorous globetrotters alike. Nestled between France and Germany, Luxembourg’s green pastures beckoned as my…
The new cold war: No thaw in sight
American economic dominance and military might have driven a phase of global growth unknown to mankind beforehand, and it believes that Asia remains within its sphere of influence. As China…
Travelling the Arab World: Lebanon
Sitting on the Mediterranean Sea and bordering Israel and Syria, Lebanon has an incredibly rich, but volatile history. The town of Byblos, just north of Beirut is one of the…
Should Argentina be hosting the G20 summit?
When President Macri won the bid for this year’s G20 summit, in 2016, shortly after being inaugurated, he could never have predicted the economic and political climate he would be…
Ireland: A place of ruin, prosperity and hope
In 1948, the Oireachtas (the legislature of Ireland) declared that Ireland, previously a part of the United Kingdom and under British occupation, would become its own Republic after ‘800 years’…
Is a country which has homophobic law, but is not at war, at peace?
In October the Asia Scotland Institute organised a talk by Noel Lateef, the head of the Foreign Policy Association (FPA) based in New York. The Association was celebrating its 100th…
Britain’s warped view of its past may ruin its future
Last week, I went to the British museum for the first time, which is kind of embarrassing because I love history and have lived in London for a few months…
Hong Kong must hold onto its freedom
Hong Kong, the Pearl of the Orient, ‘Asia’s World City’, whatever name it goes by, this former British colony is flourishing as an economic gold standard in China. Despite its…
The Chinese government ‘don’t see us as life’
I’m trying to become more active in the international Uyghur community, and through various online searches, attempts to purchase a book, and some good old fashioned Facebook stalking, I managed…
We must act now to help refugees
When Europe began to back out of its open-door policy in 2015, the world was forced to watch the refugee crisis develop into the biggest humanitarian catastrophe of the 21stcentury….
Travels around the Arab world: debunking myths
I often get asked why I decided to study Arabic at university and to this day I give the same ridiculous but truthful answer: I had been obsessed with the…
In Cyprus, food can be a symbol of unity
Last summer I experienced Nicosia for the first time. It is the world’s only divided capital, rent in two by a UN ‘Green Line’ enforcing partition of the unrecognised Turkish…
Where are you, Mr Hunt? Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe needs you
Since April 2016, I’ve completed my A-Levels, moved to Scotland, finished two years of university, and lived in three different flats. Since April 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in…
Saudi journalist’s disappearance in Turkey suggests oily US intentions
Jamal Khashoggi, advisor-turned-critic of the Saudi Kingdom, walked into the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul’s leafy Levent neighbourhood on the afternoon of 2 October. He had been called in for some…
Political polarisation holds us all back
In the weeks leading up to Brexit I didn’t see a single article on my newsfeed that suggested that the Leave campaign might win. Most of my friends are left…
Debt threatens to derail the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is often cited as being the brainchild of the current Chinese premier Xi Jinping, who first announced the project in Kazakhstan during 2013, where…
Brexit, to Nordic community, means the loss of ‘a neighbour’
While Theresa May grapples with the ever steepening slope of leaving the European Union, those over the sea in the Nordic regions are shaking their heads in disbelief. In August,…
There’s no such thing as society, my ass
One thing that Vietnam does fantastically well is community. There is an unspoken familiarity between people there. Even the way you address people (‘hey big sister’, ‘hey grandpa’) is predicated…
The Vietnam model is a cautionary tale for Kim Jong Un
Fifty years ago, this part of Vietnam was a pile of smouldering ash, levelled by American bombers. This month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was welcomed in the sprawling…
Money maketh man: the cash dictating Trumps policies
With the press recoiling from, and rightly hammering, Trump’s most recent shambles in Helsinki, the rest of us are just confused. The sit-com, that is contemporary US politics, is as…