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Stefan Wolff

Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham
The author of eighteen books and over fifty journal articles and book chapters, Stefan Wolff is Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham, England, UK. He is also A political scientist by background, he specialises in the management of contemporary security challenges, especially in the prevention and settlement of ethnic conflicts and civil wars, and in post-conflict reconstruction, peace-building and state-building in deeply divided and war-torn societies. He has extensive expertise in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union, and has also worked on a wide range of other conflicts elsewhere, including the Middle East, Africa, and Central, South and Southeast Asia. Bridging the divide between academia and policy-making, he has been, and is, involved in various phases of conflict settlement processes, including in Iraq, Sudan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Kosovo.

Global Geopolitics Series

Ukraine war: $60 billion in US military aid a major morale boost but no certain path to victory

Apr 23, 2024 08:04 am UTC| Insights & Views

It took months of delays and desperate pleas from Ukraine, but the US House of Representatives has finally passed a bill authorising US$60 billion (50 billion) worth of military aid to Ukraine. The bill is still subject...

China Crisis Series

China’s new world order: looking for clues from Xi’s recent meetings with foreign leaders

Apr 22, 2024 03:31 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

There is broad consensus that Chinese foreign policy has become more assertive and more centralised in the decade since Xi Jinping has ascended to the top of Chinas leadership. This has also meant that Chinese foreign...

Global Geopolitics Series

Ukraine is losing the war and the west faces a stark choice

Apr 18, 2024 06:24 am UTC| Insights & Views

Ukraine is now experiencing a level of existential threat comparable only to the situation immediately after the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. But in contrast to then, improvements are unlikely at least...

Global Geopolitics Series

Moldova: Russia continues its mischief-making in breakaway Transnistria

Apr 01, 2024 11:05 am UTC| Insights & Views

In mid-February, the leader of Moldovas breakaway region of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, summoned deputies of all levels of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The purpose of their meeting, he announced, would be...

Ukraine war: ten years after Putin annexed Crimea, Russia’s grip on the peninsula looks shaky

Mar 18, 2024 09:03 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

It is ten years since Russia illegally annexed Crimea on March 18 2014. Subsequent efforts to firmly integrate the peninsula into the Russian Federation, however, have been far from the success story that the Kremlin often...

Global Geopolitics Series

Ukraine war: stakes are high for EU and Ukraine ahead of crucial European summit

Dec 12, 2023 15:59 pm UTC| Insights & Views

When the EUs heads of state and government come together in Brussels for their final European Council meeting of the year on December 14 and 15, their agenda is likely to be dominated by the war in Ukraine. As youd...

Ukraine war: Russia's hard line at European security meeting ratchets up tensions another notch

Dec 06, 2023 07:55 am UTC| Politics

After many months of diplomatic wrangling, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was granted another lease of life at the annual ministerial council meeting last week in a messy compromise between...

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Economy

Beyond the spin, beyond the handouts, here’s how to get a handle on what’s really happening on budget night

Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, TV or news websites on budget night. The quickest way to find out what...

Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility

Ivan Vladislavić is Johannesburgs literary linkman. He tells us, in the first pages of his new book, The Near North, that before cities were lit, first by gaslight and later electricity, people of means paid torchbearers...

Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget

With Jim Chalmerss third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief beyond the tax cuts although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As this weeks consumer price...

Inflation is slowly falling, while student debt is climbing: 6 graphs that explain today’s CPI

Australias inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and its now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. The annual rate peaked at 7.8% in the December quarter of 2022 and is now just 3.6%, in...

Extraordinary Vietnam fraud case exposes the inherent vulnerabilities of banks

The financial crisis of 2008 showed just how much the world depends on banks being well run. Since then, regulators have been given new powers to keep some of the biggest institutions on a much shorter leash to stamp out...

Politics

Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board

To say that the Labour party is flying high in the polls is something of an understatement. But despite its consistent lead against the Tories, the opposition finds itself in a rather odd position: on the cusp of power but...

History for sale: what does South Africa’s struggle heritage mean after 30 years of democracy?

One of my favourite statues is the one of Nelson Mandela at the Sandton City shopping centre in Johannesburg. Larger than life, its oversized bronze shoes shimmer in the evening light, polished by the hands of many...

Sudan: civil war stretches into a second year with no end in sight

In the early hours of April 15 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) a Sudanese paramilitary force attacked the military airstrip in the town of Merowe and deployed troops across strategic locations in Sudans capital,...

Military conscription is returning to Europe, but is it really a more equal way of mobilising? What history tells us

The idea that conscription, defined as the compulsory enlistment of citizens for military service, can increase equality and instil a sense of solidarity that transcends traditional societal divides has echoed throughout...

The 50th anniversary of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution

Across Portugal, a number of photography exhibitions are currently on display that commemorate the ousting of the Estado Novo, the dictatorial, authoritarian and corporatist political regime that had ruled the country...

Science

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Peter Higgs was one of the greats of particle physics. He transformed what we know about the building blocks of the universe

Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics the area of...

Could a telescope ever see the beginning of time? An astronomer explains

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short, is one of the most advanced telescopes ever built. Planning for JWST began over 25 years ago, and construction efforts spanned over a decade. It was launched into space on...

US media coverage of new science less likely to mention researchers with African and East Asian names

When one Chinese national recently petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become a permanent resident, he thought his chances were pretty good. As an accomplished biologist, he figured that news...

Technology

Anthropic Launches Claude AI App on iPhone to Rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT

Anthropic PBC, an artificial intelligence startup established in 2021, announced on Wednesday, May 1, that it launched an iOS app for its Claude 3 AI chatbot or language models. The company also unveiled a new subscription...

Shiba Inu Whale Moves 100 Billion SHIB Before FOMC, Signals Market Stir

In a surprising move, a mysterious Shiba Inu whale deposited 100 billion SHIB tokens into Coinbase, coinciding with a significant price drop just before the Federal Reserves crucial rate decision. This action has stirred...

Dongfeng Unveils High-Power Tesla Cybertruck Rival, Eyes Production in Italy

At the Beijing Auto Show, Dongfeng Motor Group showcased a Cybertruck-inspired electric vehicle boasting an impressive 1,305 horsepower, signaling its ambitions to produce over 100,000 electrified cars annually in Italy....

Biden Administration Set to Finalize Stricter EV Tax Credit Rules

The Biden administration is finalizing new electric vehicle tax credit rules, slashing the list of eligible models to just 13. This update, part of a broader effort to refine economic incentives before the election,...

Zeus Network Set to Launch Solana to Bitcoin Bridge in Q3 2024

Zeus Network has announced the launch of Zeus Program Library (ZPL) by Q3 2024, a pioneering bridge designed to connect and enhance asset transfer between the Solana and Bitcoin ecosystems, offering broad applications in...