Syria is very different from Iraq, primarily because there's a war already in progress. That doesn't mean military intervention is the right move, but it makes it a more difficult question.
Category: War and peace
Iran and the resonance of the past
Sixty years on from a coup that poisoned Iranian-US relations, the CIA has come clean about its role. It may be a small step forward in a difficult process of reconciliation.
Please don’t feed the beast
Unnecessary military spending is a cancer on democracy, but it takes a case like Egypt to show the real damage that it can do.
Just a war of words over Gibraltar
Spain and Britain have been at loggerheads this week over Gibraltar, Britain's last territory on the European mainland. But there's no prospect of a rerun of the Falklands War.
An ominous but hopeful anniversary
Burma commemorates the failed revolution of 1988 in a new spirit of openness.
Another swing to the left
A swing to the centre-left in Turkish Northern Cyprus raises modest hopes for a renewed peace process.
One weekend, four elections
The weekend's four elections, in Kuwait, Cambodia, Northern Cyprus and Mali, make an interesting set of contrasts.
God and the neocons
The Economist's Will Wilkinson does a superb hatchet job on George Will in particular and the whole neocon-theocrat alliance in general.
Talking about talking about peace
John Kerry announces, rather warily, the start of a new round of Israel-Palestine negotiations. Getting to this point has been hard; getting the current Israeli government to actually make peace will be much harder.
Fundamentalism on trial in Bangladesh
A controversial verdict from Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal has led to violent protests. The background is a complex mixture of war, religion and politics.
The World is Not Enough 