More attention needs to be given to the destabilising impact that ransom funding provokes. This could entail a network of sanctions that would categorically link ransom payments to the illegal act of funding terrorism.

Almost ten years from the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) referral of the situation in Darfur, in Resolution 1593, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) the humanitarian situation in Darfur remains volatile.

There is no conclusive evidence of the Court either impeding or facilitating peace, and we must be mindful that achieving peace in conflict countries will never be easy.

In the 1960s, the American Civil Rights Movement took the country by storm. Decades later, and well into the new century, the recent tragic events of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have questioned national unity

The legal classification of cross-border armed conflicts between State and non-State parties has become increasingly complex as such conflicts do not fit into the neat typology of international armed conflict (IAC) or non-international armed conflict (NIAC).

Freedom of expression should never be an act of bravery. Whoever threatens it is an enemy of all freedom-loving people.

We will witness a battle between a Congress that desires to restore a proactive approach to US foreign affairs and an administration that seeks to continue to limp down the path to the finish line of the next presidential inauguration. It could be a long two years.

During the course of the next 12 months, we could easily see development in one or more of these threats: a total meltdown in Iraq and neighbouring Middle Eastern states; a nuclear Iran, toward which Israel might well lose its patience, in the absence of meaningful American support; and a renewed Russian campaign against the rest of Ukraine, or even a Baltic state or two

The grounds for an alliance between European far right and Russia have been motivated by and shaped along the lines of opposition and counteraction to the idea of a “common enemy” in the EU and the US.

Minority abuse and impunity in the face of grave violations of human rights should not be accepted in silence and the plight of the Crimeans must be given the attention it deserves. It must be possible to hold Russia responsible for its illegal actions while simultaneously recognising that Crimea, and in particular the Crimean population, is the victim.