Afghanistan: western powers must accept defeat and deal realistically with the Taliban Sten Rynning, University of Southern Denmark The short version of events in Afghanistan is that Pakistan won and the international alliance led by the United States lost. Of course the story is not over and things could change – Iraq, for example, is a case of an intervention going very wrong but then returning to a more hopeful state of play. The same could happen in Afghanistan too, but it is very unlikely. The scale of the loss and the degree of political exhaustion at home have left the … Continue reading Is it time to deal realistically with the Afghan Taliban?

Is it time for a ‘new way of war?’ What China’s army reforms mean for the rest of the world Bates Gill, Macquarie University and Adam Ni, Macquarie University The ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu once said, Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak. Looking at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) today, it’s hard to say which of these tactics is most germane. Getting the answer right will have enormous consequences for the United States and the future of the Indo-Pacific region. Underestimating the PLA breeds complacency and risks costly overreach. Overestimating the Chinese … Continue reading China Military: Reforms

Inside the warped world of incel extremists Charlie Tye, University of York In trying to understand what prompted a man in Plymouth, England to commit the worst mass shooting in the UK for over a decade, attention has turned to his apparent links with the incel community – an online subculture of people who describe themselves as “involuntary celibates”. Jake Davison allegedly shot his mother before a shooting spree which ended when he turned the gun on himself. His youngest victim was three years old. In the lead-up to the attacks, he compared himself to incels in YouTube videos and contributed … Continue reading Time to address ‘Incel Extremism’

Thinking the unthinkable: could there be a military coup in the US? Luke Foster Middup, University of St Andrews What are the chances that Donald Trump’s presidency could be brought to a halt by a military uprising? At first glance, it seems like a strange question, and the idea of a military coup in a developed and seemingly stable Western democracy feels far-fetched. But then again, memories are short: in May 1958, France faced a military revolt in Algeria that threatened to spread to the French mainland. Without it, General Charles de Gaulle would never have been president, and the Fifth … Continue reading Was a Military Coup Planned Against Trump in 2017?

A bitter culture war in the fourth century shows we may not be as divided as we think Ryan Gilfeather, University of Cambridge A large crowd gathers, seething with anger over the ignorant and harmful ideas of their opponents. They want to stamp out the power of the old regime for the good of the world. The group comes upon a statue honouring the outdated ideologies they have come to hate and tears it to the ground, shattering it to pieces. This scene may sound familiar. So much like the demise of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol in 2020 and … Continue reading Society may not be as divided as we think

Afghanistan: Taliban victory inevitable despite the trillions the US poured in Natasha Lindstaedt, University of Essex In less than a week, the Taliban has captured nearly a dozen key cities in Afghanistan. With the departure of US forces, it is poised to take over the country from the embattled Afghan government. Over the past 20 years, the US has poured trillions of dollars into Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, an effort that was clearly unsuccessful. But a look at the country’s strategic geographic location and the politics of the region (including support for the Taliban) tells us that this outcome was … Continue reading Taliban victory inevitable despite the trillions the US spent

COVID: what happens if a far more lethal coronavirus emerges in pets? The recent suggestion that ministers may have to consider culling or vaccinating animals to prevent the coronavirus from picking up another dangerous mutation and jumping back to humans may sound like sudden panic, but it’s just part of a long debate among scientists. Evidence that cats could be infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, emerged as early as April 2020 from Wuhan, China. Evidence that they could also transmit the infection to other cats under particular conditions appeared in the same month. Since then, infections have been … Continue reading Will Your Pets Get Covid?

Mark Zuckerberg wants to turn Facebook into a ‘metaverse company’ – what does that mean? Daniel Broby, University of Strathclyde Mark Zuckerberg wants to reinvent Facebook. He has been telling analysts and journalists that he wants the company to lead the way to a completely different internet. He said: In the coming years, I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company … In many ways the metaverse is the ultimate expression of social technology. So what does the Facebook chief executive mean by “metaverse company”? And what will the … Continue reading Zuckerberg Metaverse Matrix?

There’s more than one type – and our research reveals what makes each tick Nikhila Mahadevan, University of Essex Chances are you’ve met a narcissist. Someone who thinks they’re better than everyone else, dominates the conversation and loves the limelight. But scientists are increasingly realising that not all narcissists are the same – some are, in fact, extremely insecure. In our new paper, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, we describe the distinct types – and what motivates them. In classical Greek mythology, the hunter Narcissus was the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was … Continue reading Narcissists…

– new research Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian, University of Cambridge; Christelle Langley, University of Cambridge; Emmanuel A Stamatakis, University of Cambridge, and Lennart Spindler, University of Cambridge Consciousness is arguably the most important scientific topic there is. Without consciousness, there would after all be no science. But while we all know what it is like to be conscious – meaning that we have personal awareness and respond to the world around us – it has turned out to be near impossible to explain exactly how it arises from the hardware of the brain. This is dubbed the “hard” problem of consciousness. … Continue reading Consciousness: how the brain chemical ‘dopamine’ plays a key role