News and views from the Blavatnik School of Government community 
Donald Trump’s pledge to withdraw US ground troops from Syria and Afghanistan has become one of the most controversial foreign policy decisions of his presidency. The political backlash following Trump’s abrupt announcement to immediately remove all 2,000 troops from Syria last December has caused a series of partial reversals, with […]
The passing of Bangsamoro organic law, better known by its previous name Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), last July presents a unique chance for peace in the southern Philippines as the government and two rival separatist groups agreed to work together. While the signing of BBL marked yet another historical breakthrough […]
It is often said that the US and China – superpowers at economic, geopolitical, and ideological loggerheads – are heading toward a new cold war. And the rhetoric – at least from one side – has come to resemble that of Winston Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech, one of the inaugural events of […]
Russia is preparing to hold a quadrennial military exercise called ‘Zapad’ (which translates as the West) between September 14th and 20th on the territory of Western Russia, Russian exclave Kaliningrad and Belarus. Current tensions with the West add up to the salience of the upcoming drills, which according to NATO […]
Darjeeling is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal which shares the border with Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. A globally renowned destination right from the days of British colonisation, its landscape, toy train, tea gardens, and timber resource made it a popular destination for visitors throughout the 20th […]
For the first time ever, the Iraqi Kurds have seriously raised the flag of independence and recently made several critical steps forwards for this purpose. The process has been rolled out with no chances of return. The date for the independence referendum has been set: September 25, 2017. Although going […]
The military campaign for the liberation of the Islamic State’s stronghold city of Mosul, the capital city of Nineveh province, has begun today. After twenty-eight months of controlling the second-largest city of Iraq, ISIS’s chapter in Iraq will be brought almost to an end. Yet as the most diversified and […]
Establishing progress towards economic and social prosperity – not just political change – is essential for Arab Countries in transition If a single word can summarize everything the young Arab protestors were trying to express during the Arab Spring, the word would be Dignity. Living with dignity was the manifestation […]