Month: June 2016

On Thursday 23rd June, about 52% of British voters chose to leave the European Union. The decision had serious implications. The pound sterling became volatile, Scotland is considering another referendum for independence and there’s talk of Northern Ireland uniting with the Republic of Ireland. The City of London, who also voted to remain, is in shock. Furthermore, the majority of young people voted to stay in Europe, but their vote was outnumbered by an older generation who will not have to live with the consequences of this huge decision as long…

Five years ago, a series of unprecedented uprisings and demonstrations broke out in countries across the Middle East and North Africa. Protesters took to their streets to demonstrate against their governments, in what came to be known as the ‘Arab Spring’. It began in Tunisia in December 2010 when a young Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a suicide protest over unemployment and police harassment. What followed was to forever shake up the Arab world. The subsequent collapse of Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak acted as…

Throughout much of his time as President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin has shown a willingness to use violence to further his country’s interests in international affairs. Wars at home and abroad such as in Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine and Syria are proof of this and, with concerns growing in the West that Putin’s foreign policy will continue on this kind of trajectory, questions have arisen about what this may mean for Libya. Commentators and policymakers in the West have apparently begun to consider seriously whether Libya may be next…

The oil industry has become a frontline of Libya’s civil war. No other commodity better represents the complex nature of Libya’s political, security and economic instability. As a highly valuable commodity trapped within a bloody civil war, oil has the power to either unite Libya’s factions and rebuild the economy or rip apart the very fabric of Libyan society. Oil can be Libya’s salvation or its downfall. The actors on the ground must choose which path to follow. Oil as Political Leverage Oil is frequently being used as political leverage…