Sexual violence as a weapon of war has been used in a myriad of conflicts throughout history. For example, it is estimated that the Soviet Army raped around 2 million women in Germany during World War II

As the title to this piece may suggest, India’s political climate has me worried. In order to explore these worries, I am going to focus on two organizations: a volunteer organization known as the Rasthriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and, by extension, India’s current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

There would be no need for more ink to be spilt on #Brexit if it weren’t for one view astoundingly missing from the post-referendum-debate: that is a view on how to move on from here.

They say that a week is a long time in politics. It has now been two weeks, a veritable political epoch, since the United Kingdom narrowly voted to leave the European Union.

The impact and influence of mainstream media in shaping public opinion has been dwindling.

Today, the world looks on with bated breath as Britons around the nation decide whether or not the United Kingdom will remain part of the European Union. 

24th April marked twelve years since Cypriot Greeks rejected in a referendum, by an overwhelming 76% margin, the UN-sponsored “Annan Plan”. By contrast, 65% of Cypriot Turks with Turkish settlers in the occupied north accepted the plan in a separate referendum.

Ukraine’s increasing problems has been wider coverage in recent international political and media debates. Opposition about the territory of the Ukraine between pro-Russian and pro-European supporters has been steadily growing and reached two major climax points – the ‘Orange revolution’ of 2004 and the ‘Euromaidan revolution’ during 2013-2014.

All the World has become neo-liberal. This is no news. But how did it happen? How come that an ideology which, up until 50 years ago, was only known by a bunch of isolated thinkers in sparse universities of Anglo-Saxon countries, became the dominant economic ideology in the whole World?

In the port city of Calais, France, there is a refugee camp known to many as the Jungle.[1][2] While the Jungle reportedly houses 4,000 migrants according to French officials, aid workers have recently asserted that the population is nearer to 5,500 inhabitants.

For anyone interested in world development, social sciences, or any global topic for that matter, using the term ‘global South’ to refer to lower-income countries and the ‘global North’ for wealthy nations is becoming more and more normalized in academic and non-academic publications.

Over the past few years, the world has witnessed the biggest refugee crisis since WWII. While some European countries initially accommodated this mass flow of refugees, it took a photograph of the body of a small child on a beach to finally humanise these stories and bring public attention to these initially distant and disembodied experiences.

International development lore holds that a group of white men sat down in a basement of the UN building in New York in the first decade of the 21st century and came up with the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Various campaign scandals have plagued Westminster over the last decade. Ostensibly to avoid a political landscape akin to the US, where special interests are unduly influential, the Conservative-led coalition government passed the controversial Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014, or the Lobbying Act, in January 2014.

Whether by shelling Kurdish fighters in Syria or downing a Russian fighter jet, Turkey undeniably seems more willing to protect and sustain ISIS rather than confront it. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because Turkey has been conducting politics with the same old field manuals for decades.

As many readers will probably agree, graduating from university is a strange experience. One has to find their way in a new post-academic reality. 

A couple of weeks ago, another edition of the Seachdain na Gàidhlig (‘Gaelic week’) took place in Edinburgh. The University of Edinburgh introduced this week of events last year to promote and celebrate the Gaelic language. Three centuries ago, Gaelic was a flourishing language spoken by approximately a quarter of the Scottish population. Nowadays, this has dropped to 1.1%

This article problematizes the process of the development of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and, their implementation in signatory countries.

With a little too much pomp but not enough circumstance, Egypt unveiled its newly renovated Suez Canal last month. After a year of construction and £5.3 billion spent, the Suez Canal now has two parallel channels that will double its flow of traffic.

This summer I took a road trip with some friends to a sometimes forgotten region of Europe: the Balkans, or West Balkans, to be more precise. The facts that I don’t know exactly what to call it, and that people often responded with uncertainty when I told them where I was going, are indicative of the confusion and misconceptions associated with this particular area of Europe.

Everyone, it seems, loves a good “Cinderella story.” In sporting events, films and television, and yes, in real-life, people want to be able to share the moment when the beleaguered protagonist rallies against the odds and achieves success. What some call a Cinderella story, others deem ‘upward mobility.’ 

Amidst a housing crisis that threatens to price many lower income earners out of London, and that has brought levels of homelessness to new records, the ideal of home ownership continues to underpin British housing policy.

Genocide. The annihilation of an ethnic or religious group. A shocking, unthinkable crime committed only by the sadistic and depraved. Arguably the worst crime ever to be committed by the human race.

Montgomery, Alabama is a city of real struggle. Everywhere you turn there are plaques, information boards, murals, memorials, and statues, dragging the tourist gaze back to the South’s tumultuous past. Walking around the city, it is hard not to feel deeply affected by both the gruesome and truly heroic stories which have come to shape the state and the country.

Since the results of the UK General Election became clear, the debate about the future of the UK’s membership in the European Union has become much more serious.

In this post I will examine the different student protests in the UK and the Netherlands, and ask whether they form part of a new truly global student movement with concerns transcending the level of university parochialism, or whether they are just isolated incidents.

It is a funny time to be gay in Northern Ireland. First the UK re-elects the most horrendous Conservative government, but even they knew the time had come to legalise equal marriage. Then the Republic of Ireland votes Yes in an equal marriage referendum, the first country in the world to bring it in by popular vote.

The second anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh—an industrial disaster which killed over 1,130 garment workers producing clothing destined for North American and European markets—was marked on 24 April 2015.

The best part of elections when I was growing up was that they involved a day off school. My primary school was a designated polling place, so a general election meant a day away from the classroom. That said, it also meant a trip back to the school with whichever parent was at home looking after us in order to cast a vote.

After the Stonewall riots in 1969 companies began to become increasingly aware of the profitability of appealing to gay consumers. Promptly, marketers started targeting mythical ‘dream consumers’ - white, middle-class, gay men with double income, but no kids to spend it on.