The day when nobody wanted to hear about “reforms” anymore: For decades the Assad regime had completely taken over Syrian lives, when finally in 2011 they stood up and showed that they won’t be silenced anymore. Ameenah A. Sawwan narrates about their arduous path towards a better future.

“The Libyan revolution is the most successful of the failed and the most failed of the successful revolutions,” says Ghady Kafala and writes about trying to position oneself in a thoroughly ambivalent situation.

The EU and the US have to navigate bilateral differences and work with like-minded countries to formulate a response to China’s techno-authoritarianism. This effort should go beyond industrial policy towards shaping a positive and inclusive digital agenda.

The neoliberal political elite are uninterested in the needs of a society stricken by a pandemic. Their egotism favours informal structures leading to a creeping "Russification" of the country.

Karst landscapes are important for the climate because of their carbon dioxide binding capacity. Through their complex underwater systems they provide drinking water to people all over the world. With more than eight million sq. km of karst, Asia has the largest share worldwide. But karst areas like the Kendeng mountains in Indonesia are under threat to be destroyed by the cement industry. This article highlights the long-term value of intact karst systems.

The EU lacks leverage in Belarus. Doubling down on policies that failed in the past makes no sense and can only have unintended consequences. To gain relevance in Belarus and become “geopolitical” the EU should recognise painful truths about itself and the world.

In February 2011, a protest movement built in Iraq but it was not until the October 2019 protests that the country marked a turning point, writes Ahmed Saadawi. In his essay, he examines the interaction/interplay between progressive and populist forces, starting with the protests against Saddam Hussein in Southern Iraq in 1991 until the recent uprisings.

Georgia’s escalating political turbulence highlights a crisis in institutional legitimacy in the country. This democratic deficit risks dragging the country into autocratic rule and reproducing the worst elements of its northern neighbour.

Most of food production in Africa is shouldered by small scale farmers and the majority of farmers are women. Alarmed by the effects of climate change on her family’s farm Ayakha Melithafa from South Africa’s Western Cape joined an environmental school club and engages now in a national and an international youth movements for climate justice.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral bank for infrastructure financing and plans to become the leading global institution for financing infrastructure projects. This article shows why the bank must intensify its efforts to inform the public in a timely manner about the environmental and social risks of its projects.