Published by The Washington Post (13th August, 2019) HONG KONG — As the hopes of the Arab Spring dissolved into brutality and chaos in 2011, I reported from […]
Democracy is under siege around the world
Published by The i paper (12th August, 2019) Once again, I am reporting on turbulent events in a place where ordinary people are risking their liberty to demand […]
New politics soon turns into old politics
Published by The i paper (29th April, 2019) Five years ago, a new force arrived in Spanish politics. Podemos emerged from massive anti-austerity protests in a nation badly […]
India’s huge vote in favour of democracy
Published by The i paper (15th April, 2019) People went by camel, car, foot, bicycle and tractor when voting started last week in the world’s biggest general election. […]
The Arab Spring is still unfurling
Published by UnHerd (11th April, 2019) The revolution in Sudan has an icon. The image of a young student was caught on scores of mobile phones as she […]
A moral superpower shifts right
Published by The i paper (10th September, 2018) A few years ago I spoke at a conference in Sweden, which took place in a rural venue at height […]
A lesson in leadership
Published by The i Paper (9th July, 2018) Oh happy days. Suddenly the mood of our country has lifted thanks to the heroics of an unfancied group of […]
The debasing of democracy
Published by The Mail on Sunday (25th March, 2018) Back in those far off days before the internet consumed our world, a teenager from New York launched a […]
No place for defeatism in the struggle for democracy
Published by The i paper (19th March, 2016) As Russia goes through another sham election to crown its tsar for six more miserable years, it is easy to […]
West Africa offered reasons to be cheerful in 2017
Published by The Times (1st January, 2018) George Weah, the former world footballer of the year, has achieved his great goal by winning the presidency of Liberia. There […]
The Crocodile shows his teeth
Published by The i paper (20th November, 2017) So farewell then, Robert Mugabe. The situation in Zimbabwe remains fluid after the carefully planned coup that claims not to […]
Trump is debasing democracy the world over
Published by CapX (27th July, 2017) When I was in Liberia three years ago covering the ebola epidemic, I was amazed to discover the depth of antipathy many […]