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  • 17 Sep 2010
    Pope Benedict's UK visit: an emphasis on human need

    Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the UK needs to promote mutual understanding, says Father Shay Cullen, to encourage common commitment to all areas of human need and suffering, and to emphasise world peace, justice and equality.

  • 16 Sep 2010
    Convenient killing: armed drones and ‘Playstation warfare’

    The military use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, has risen sharply over the last decade, says Amy Hailwood. The growing use of robotic weapons is taking us down a dark trajectory, and yet it is happening with almost no public debate.

  • 10 Sep 2010
    Is it worse or better in the Middle East today?

    The main question in the Middle East today is not one of finding solutions but of implementing them, says Harry Hagopian. However, the majority of the Israeli political establishment - not unlike Hamas in an obverse sense – appears not to want to resolve the conflict and establish peace with the Palestinians, but prefers instead to manage the conflict and perpetuate it.

  • 10 Sep 2010
    Kairos and Christian advocacy in the ‘Holy Land’

    There is no shortage of reporting, analysis, and opinion about Palestine-Israel, says Timothy Seidel, and no shortage of expressions of personal commitments to ‘peace’. But the journey required of Christians and others by the Kairos Palestine Document is altogether tougher.

  • 09 Sep 2010
    Beware of intervention in Kyrgyzstan

    Despite deep fissures in Kyrgyz society in the aftermath of the upheavals, external intervention would be counterproductive, advises John Heathershaw. Instead, foreign governments should concentrate their efforts on reducing the stakes of the conflict.

  • 06 Sep 2010
    Food, land and politics

    Land rights in Brazil have fuelled conflict at every level within the country for more than 500 years, writes Pascale Palmer, exploring the issues that lie behind Brazil’s “agricultural miracle” and the struggle to feed the planet in the face of both need and greed.

  • 01 Sep 2010
    Loving your neighbour in the Middle East

    Deeply embedded in the religions of the Abrahamic tradition in this region, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, is the sense of loving your neighbour as being rooted in the adoration and love of God, says Mark Beach. Despite the complexities of the politics and religious differences which are steeped in the recent tragedies as much as historical events of Palestine and Israel, this is a powerful resource for change.

  • 31 Aug 2010
    An Iranian nonviolent resister

    It is one thing to sit in a comfortable, safe environment and talk about the courage needed to embrace nonviolence in the context of active armed conflict, writes Garland Robertson. It is something quite different to embrace nonviolence personally in the face of great danger and to break allegiance with a violent company that actively pursues traitors. This is the story of one such person, a Kurd from Western Iran.

  • 29 Aug 2010
    Israeli settlement trade in the spotlight

    The recent acquittal of four London-based activists for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) raises profound issues for traders in products which originate from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, says Simon Natas, a lawyer involved in the case.

  • 29 Aug 2010
    Why Labour's next leader should not be a prophet

    Prophets are not good at making laws because they are too busy searching out injustice – thank God. Such people are not leaders or governors. On the other hand, law-makers are pragmatic and a bit dull. Graeme Smith contends that the Labour Party is, and should be, in the business of electing a leader not a prophet.