A new president brings opportunities for change and reform. But what are the challenges and is the nation too disorientated to address them?

Mohamed Bouazizi’s suicide in Tunisia is widely regarded as the spark that set off the “Arab Spring”. Whatever the revolutionary or anti-establishment intentions, what it spurred on raises profound questions about the nature of contemporary political protest.

The Red Sea is returning to a place of great geopolitical importance, turning the Gulf into a battleground of Middle Eastern powers. Countries that have so far remained neutral, and maintained balanced relationships, are now engaged in an unpredictable game.

Sprawling cities bring their own transportation needs. Where options can be limited, can these needs also bring the ability for social and economic change?

There is a strange contrast between politicians acting like hardnosed tycoons, on the one hand, and corporate authority figures touting social responsibilities on the other. What does this mean for public rhetoric on governing the nation-cum-economy?

Building walls is back on the political agenda, but as before it’s more about symbolism than security.

‘Motor City’ went from being a vision of the new United States to a place with severe poverty and urban decay. Why does it matter for the industrialized world?

In this extract from Soil, Not Oil, Vandana Shiva questions the long-term environmental and economic impact of India’s burgeoning love affair with the motorcar

And what does debt teach? In this extract from Crises of Imagination, Crises of Power Max Haiven shatters the notion of the university as meritocracy.