Human Security Centre Human Rights and International Security Research

Defeating the Taliban is a moral imperative; conversely, to appease them would be against everything we believe in, stand for, fight for and died for. It would be the ultimate betrayal of our values.

The crisis in Syria is on-going and so is the debate about the West’s options to help end the bloodshed. Those in favour of a more pro-active policy are regularly confronted with a variety of arguments against intervention.

Executive Director Julie Lenarz published in the Times of Israel on the ongoing misconceptions the West has regarding the civil war in Syria. Two and a half years after the war kicked off in Syria the debate rages on over whether the West should get involved or stay out of the brutal conflict.

The brutal images coming from Woolwich could not have been more surreal. A man with bloodied hands holds a knife and explains he has just hacked a British soldier to death on the streets of London in broad daylight.

When I walked towards the memorial in Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan a fortnight ago to attend the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the genocide, I passed by a seemingly endless stream of images.