"Why should we be scared of the LTTE?" said Kandiah, a resident of the village, who lost his son in the war. "Here, the army will protect us and we do not have to take orders from the LTTE. The army officers do not give us orders, they make requests

Emmanuel Todd's best seller has been translated into English. Todd predicted the fall of the Soviet Empire and twenty five years later he is diagnosing the current ills of the other super-power. What has gone down well with the Franco-German readership may be greeted more cynically in the Anglo-American world.

Finding a compromise solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is usually considered the prerequisite for peace and cooperation in the Caucasus. The analysis of the conflict, however, shows that the mutual mistrust and animosity of Armenians and Azeris presently is so high that even the smallest concession, particularly related to the

David Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals, Simon and Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0-7432-2323-3 (Pbk) pp. 557

The author discusses whether Iceland should join the list of 19 countries with no armed forces that includes Grenada, Samoa, Lichtenstein, Mauritius and Costa Rica. The decision may depend with the the potential unemployment problems in Keflavik.

Joseph Schumacher scrutinises the current situation in Angola, and finds the international financial system wanting. See also our current book review of Joseph E Stiglitz's critique of the IMF and his prescription for reform.

UPEACE Professor Victoria Fontan gives a personal and candid account of academic repression in the United States, exposing, as she puts it "how my research, teaching, and writings were repressed by different sources both within and outside my academic institution during the 2003-2004 year, and how this repression led me

Theresa, one of the would-be returnees to Liberia, is a middle-aged woman whose difficult life experiences show through in the lines etched on her face. She was forced to leave her country four years ago due to the ongoing violence there and has lived in exile in Ghana ever