The World Today

Issue: December & January 2015/16

In this issue:

Colombia How the guerrillas were led to the negotiating table - and stayed
Putin's pundit Vladimir Pozner, the face of Moscow TV on Russia's imperial hangover
Ocean rescue How the revival of cod is pointing the way to save fish stocks

Islamic State gunmen brought death to the streets of Paris on November 13, leaving the European Union in a state of shock. This is a turning point at which Europe must decide how best to defend its way of life.

Agnes Frimston talks to the Egyptian author of more than 50 books including Woman at Point Zero and The Face of Eve. She is one of the BBC’s 100 inspirational women of 2015

Woman fighters with the Kurdish YPG militia on the outskirts of the Syrian town of Kobane

The complexity of Middle Eastern politics plays into terrorists’ hands. Detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia is required before Gulf States are likely to share western priorities in Syria

After the nuclear deal, Israel’s focus shifts to the rising involvement of Iranian forces in Syria

Iran’s new crop of female entrepreneurs worry what the lifting of sanctions will mean for their businesses

Hundreds of shark fins dry out on the dock at Manta in Ecuador. The trade in shark fins is banned under international conventions

Vast swathes of the seas are being declared protected areas to preserve marine life. But they are not fully protected and are only a small part of the solution

The year 2015 proved to Europe that the world really is getting smaller.

Articles

Moscow may have done the fighting, but Beijing is reaping the rewards

Conservationists are delighted, but some islanders are circumspect about the announcement of a vast marine protected area in their waters

David Cameron has outlined his plans for the renegotiation of Britain’s membership of the European Union and the concessions he intends to win in the hope that this will convince British voters to remain in the club when they cast their ballots in the forthcoming referendum.

Syrian market traders mind their lingerie stall in Damascus

Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World Shereen El Feki, Vintage, £8.99

New books cast the Thatcher-Gorbachev relationship in a harsher light

Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony is able to move freely in the CAR

Making Sense of the Central African RepublicEdited by Tatiana Carayannis and Louis Lombard, Zed Books, £19.99

Also in this issue

Fifth-term blues: Belarus needs reform but its leader isn’t keen

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has not made a speech since 2012

Rumblings as president remains hidden from view

Power changed hands peacefully after Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won Myanmar’s election

Yes, it was grim, but there were events worth celebrating

Mark Andreessen of venture capitalists Andreessen-Horowitz

Test your knowledge of the world in our annual quiz

More than 4,000 project proposals have been filed with the organization in charge of Beijing’s new Silk Road initiative, but the high level of interest does not mean that the project is ready to take concrete form, though