Middle East and North Africa

Perhaps we should stake out the case for interventionism in very simple terms: an internationalist party does not stand by and permit the slaughter of children in gas attacks.

There are no signs of any potential intervention by the international community, as long as Assad is not resorting to chemical and biological weapons — also known as the ‘red line’ policy of the Obama administration. But shouldn’t tens of thousands of men, women and children not be a ‘red line’ in themselves?

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies with an extremely arbitrary, reactionary and obscurantist justice system based on the most fundamental codification of Sharia law.

Algeria has the potential to emerge from the Arab Spring as a regional power. This may be good news for western states, but it's bad new for Arab revolutionaries. In the context of the Arab Spring, or Arab Winter, much attention has been paid to those states seen to be exerting influence from behind the scenes

The Assad regime was behind the stomach-churning nerve agent attack on Ghouta. This is not conjecture. This is not a probability. This just simply is.

Just six weeks after the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi’s government, Egypt finds itself on the precipice of civil war and complete meltdown.

Since the end of the Cold War, Russia’s influence in the Middle East has been greatly undermined and its policy has changed in emphasis and intensity. While during the clash between the two superpowers – the US and the Soviet Union – the Middle East was part of its ideological battlefield

Whenever Afghanistan comes up in conversation, there are nearly always at least one of two myths put forward: firstly, that the only thing being achieved in this war is an increasing death toll of our troops; secondly, that the Afghans do not want us there and they were better off before we invaded.

I respect Roger Waters’ right to encourage others to boycott Israeli goods, though I disagree with it. But what is plainly foolish, not to mention an insult to that noble struggle against racism, is to talk as former the Pink Floyd bassist does about “apartheid”.

John Slinger writes in the New Statesman, that much more can be done short of an Iraq-style invasion in Syria. All too often, international events bear out the adage that "history teaches us that history teaches us nothing". Lessons from the shameful response of the international community to other crises must inform our policy on Syria