As a relative late-comer to Twitter I had been hugely sceptical of what it could really add to my life. For a long time my adage was "if you can say it in 140 characters, it's probably not worth saying," (blame Aaron Sorkin for Jed Bartlet's adage of "

The challenge facing America now is arguably greater than that facing the U.S. at the end of WWII. Victory in Europe and the Pacific delivered a much needed sense of achievement and resolution to the attack on Pearl Harbor. This has not been the case in Iraq or Afghanistan. While...

As I sit here in Heathrow Terminal 4 having just finished eating some sub-par airport food with tiny cutlery, I can't help wondering if we've done more in the last decade to create a perception of being under constant terrorist threat than to come to terms with how much of...

You could be forgiven for thinking that the elections in Egypt are the only elections happening in Autumn 2011 - such is the blanket media coverage accorded to it over the other elections taking place around the world. However, other elections are taking place. Horrific violence plagued Nicaragua's elections amidst...

No doubt the negotiated release of Gilad Shalit after five years in captivity will end up lost in the furore surrounding the death of Muammar Gaddafi, but in many ways it has more potential to affect the future of the Middle East than the sorry end to the erstwhile dictator's...

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees recently published a worrying story about the proposed demolition of Khan al Ahmar in the West Bank. The 180-person community is slated for demolition to make way for the expansion of settlements in the Ma'ale Adumin area,...

Immediately following a regime change there's a period known as the 'golden hour' of maximum possibility (coined by James Dobbins in RAND's The Beginner's Guide to Nation Building). The most important aspects of which are to secure the security sphere and implement the rule of law.

Iraq showed...

East Africa stands on the brink of a humanitarian disaster unlike any we've seen in the twenty-first century. The scale of this disaster is so large that it can be almost impossible to comprehend, so let's try to put what's happening into context.

First off, let's take a look at...

As is always the case after any unexpected social schism, policymakers and journalists are all casting about for something to blame for the riots. The current leading candidates seem to be either the ineffectual government response to the initial trouble or some wishy-washy 'these people have political goals' explanation. However,...

I wasn't alone on July 22nd in thinking that the attacks in Oslo and Utoya bore few of the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, but it certainly didn't seem that way to anyone watching rolling news coverage of the events unfolding in Norway.

News stations were extremely quick to wheel out...