Global Political Insight

While attending the BRICS summit in July this year, President Xi made a state visit to Brazil where he met with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. This was Xi’s first visit to the country since becoming president (he previously visited as Vice President in 2009), and comes as China and Brazil celebrate their 40th anniversary of bilateral ties. Before […]

The Ebola Virus, formerly known as ‘Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever’ is an often fatal disease originating in the tropical rainforests of Central Africa. 932 people have died as a result of contracting the disease in this latest outbreak. The disease is spread to humans through the handling and butchering of infected animals. Once an individual is […]

At first glance, UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules seem to be the solution to protecting football and making the sport more competitive. From an economic point of view, however, this does not seem to be the case – according to a working paper from Nicolas Petit, a competition law academic from the University of Liége, FFP implementation is […]

The United States and Israel have always enjoyed an intimate relationship. Israel was a key ally during the Cold War and the security of Israel is one of Washington’s primary concerns. As a result, the US provides Israel with a lot of finances in the form of aid. Since World War II Israel has received […]

In 2016, the world’s fastest growing economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, commonly abbreviated as the ‘BRICS’ countries, with South Africa being the latest addition to the group, will set up their own Development Bank. The Development Bank will focus on BRICS infrastructure projects and will serve to support the blocs’ economies. The […]

‘In Defence of Western Journalists in Africa’, an article published earlier this year by renowned journalist and author Michela Wrong, responded to suggestions made (in particular by Lucy Hovil and Nanjala Nyabola) that Western journalists continually fail to adequately understand and appreciate the complexities of conflict in Africa. As a consequence, Hovil and Nyabola argued, […]

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has stemmed from several disagreements that all have roots in the past, before spiralling into the current conflict we see in the news. We are constantly bombarded with images of soldiers and civilians, politicians and commentators, Israelis and Palestinians. And, most importantly, everyone tries to decide who is right, who has the […]

Despite the insistence of western governments on framing the conflict within the ‘war on terror’ narrative, recent events in Mali are part of decades long struggle for Azawadi independence and the geopolitical manoeuvrings of regional and world powers. Negotiations are underway between Tuareg and Arab rebel groups and the Malian government following the signing of the Algiers […]

The year 2008 proved to be a landmark in Europe’s economic meltdown, a year in which policy makers began to realise the true losses on loans advanced by banks across peripheral Europe. September 30th, also known as “Black Monday” to the Irish population, proved to be a day of disaster. When the Irish government gave […]

Leading Taliban officials have released a statement expressing their concerns over disputes between rival jihadist factions in Syria, after the recent declaration made by ISIS (who now wish to be known as the Islamic State) on June 29th that the territory under their control in Iraq and Syria is now an Islamic caliphate, under the […]