Interview
Raphael Luzon has been hosted by Gaddafi, kidnapped by Islamists and was asked to help with drafting the new constitution. In this interview he explains why one always needs to play it tough in Libya and why Gaddafi and Berlusconi got along so well.
Legal scholar Naseef Naeem on his new book “The State and Its Foundations in the Arab Republics”, the pitfalls of European notions of democracy, and why the real challenge for global legal standards arises further east.
Nearly a million people are caught up between the battle lines in Idlib. French Syria expert Fabrice Balanche explains why Russia’s deal with Erdoğan failed, and yet Moscow still holds all the cards.
In 2018, the “velvet revolution” turned Armenia’s political landscape upside down. Political analyst Anahit Shirinyan talks about the intricacies of manoeuvring between Russia, Iran and the US and kickstarting the peace process in Nagorno Karabakh.
Egyptian director Youssef Chahine challenged the status quo and shattered taboos. Today, filmmakers Marianne Khoury and Alia Ayman experience censorship on many different levels. But nevertheless, their vision of cinema is finding its own voice.
Munqith Daghir runs the Iraqi polling organization IIACSS. The rise of the so-called Islamic State (IS) could have been predicted, he believes. He shares what to expect from the newly formed government and why the S in IS matters more than the I.
In 1978, Eljakim Rubinstein was a member of the Israeli delegation at Camp David when Sadat and Begin made peace. 40 years later, the former diplomat is still impressed by the willingness to compromise – and the last-minute efforts to save the deal.
Hans-Bernd Zöllner, one of the leading researchers on Myanmar, warns that a lack of knowledge stands in the way of real progress in the Rohingya crisis. And he explains how to make sense of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s conflicting role.