Europe is home to three nations that should be successes but instead are failing badly. Over the following pages, we look at their problems – from corruption to constitutional meltdown.
The national identity of countries can shift radically and at a speed that leaves their inhabitants gasping: think of the former Soviet Union. Here leading thinkers consider what might, or should, change in the way nations…
As the issue of Catalan sovereignty remains a point of crisis in Spain, we chart the timeline of that chaotic referendum and what it might mean for other regions seeking to go it alone.
It’s been a bad start to the year for Afghanistan. As reports claim it is heading for failed-state status, the Taliban continues to defy US and Nato-led troops. President Karzai is increasingly frustrated with US and Bri…
Hosting the institutions of the EU can be a double-edged sword. But Belgium’s unique federation has plenty to offer on the world stage through its liberal and energetic approach to diplomacy, plus growing influence in the…
At any time in history there are countries on the way in or out – breakaway states eager for independence or now clamouring to be reassimilated into their former motherlands. This is the current crop of nations in waiting…
First published in 1992, ‘The Surfer’s Journal’ is more book than magazine. It’s a handsome, lovingly produced, defiantly old-school title that’s holding out against the incoming tide of digital culture.
A hard-won peace, falling crime and growing foreign investment are reasons to be optimistic about Colombia – but the age-old problems of inequality, corruption and coca production refuse to go away.
It’s been more than two decades since South Africa’s first democratic election and, while corruption allegations persist, there is some blue sky peeking through the clouds.
The world’s shipping is being held to ransom by a band of Somali pirates in battered launches. As yet another new president tries to take control of the failed state, perhaps it’s time we stopped playing nice and took…
The new president of Somalia, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has a lot to contend with: pirates, a humanitarian disaster and deadly rivals. But is he the man to revive the failed state? We meet him in Nairobi during a round…