Isis
Spectator letters: Housing associations fight back; and more world-wrecking British graduates
What we’re building Sir: I was surprised and frustrated to read Ross Clark’s piece on housing associations in last week’s…
If you want military interventions, Prime Minister, you'll need more of a military
“Whether it’s in Iraq, Syria, Libya or elsewhere — as Prime Minister, if I believe there is a specific threat…
Even Nazis weren’t quite sure how to do the Hitler salute
Gesture politics A royal home movie from 1933 apparently showed the future Queen, aged seven, and her mother giving a…
Vespasian’s Middle East policy (it should be ours, too)
As Ahmed Rashid argued last week, it is hard to see what the West is doing in the Middle East,…
I can understand those seduced by Isis; once, it could have been me
One of the great moments of my student life was opening the door and seeing visitors step back, shocked. I’d…
The enemy's enemy: how Arab states have turned to al-Qa’eda
Fear has driven the Arab states to support the West’s great enemy
Christina Lamb’s diary: Meeting the mother of the Sousse killer
One strange consequence of my job as a foreign correspondent is discovering beautiful places when terrible things happen in them.…
The other terrorists we have trouble naming
Naming terror David Cameron and the BBC argued over what to call the terror group most papers refer to as…
A documentary that ought to rank with the footage of British troops liberating Belsen
So you’ve just popped out of town for the day on an errand. And when you get back, everyone has…
Sorry, but you can’t take the Islam out of Islamic State
At last, British politicians have been galvanised into action by the appalling events last weekend in the Tunisian resort of…
Libya is what happens when we try to bomb things better
Call me petulant, but I’m not sure Britain is getting enough credit for our fine, fine work in Libya. The…
Portrait of the week
Home A Bill to enable a referendum on whether voters wanted Britain to ‘remain’ in the European Union figured in…
Mercenaries could transform the fight against Isis – if we let them
Private military contractors have done wonders against Boko Haram. They could against Isis, too
Iraq may not have the will to survive – and that’s not even the biggest problem
Isis have it. Who else?
Smash Isis now – or we’ll all pay later
Assassinate its leadership, destroy its sense of destiny
Isis is our worst possible enemy
In recent months, as the country went through a general election, our focus has been on our own domestic debates.…
Portrait of the week
Home The annual rate of inflation turned negative in April, for the first time since 1960, with deflation of 0.1…
As Kurdistan strives for a new life, its old traditions are dying
As Kurdistan reaches for independence, its traditions are dying
Justin Marozzi’s diary: Lunch with Saddam’s hangman, and a democratic revolution in Kensington
Lunch with the man who hanged Saddam. My irrepressible old Baghdad friend Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Ealing neurologist turned Iraqi national security…
Cameron led calls to remove Gaddafi. Why is he silent on Libya's drowning refugees?
One Friday, 28 people were rescued by the Italian coastguard when the boat on which they were fleeing Libya capsized in…
Portrait of the week
Home Launching the Conservative party manifesto, David Cameron, the party leader, told voters he wanted to ‘turn the good news…
Whose fault is the jihadi bride? Certainly not her astonishing dad
Like you, I suspect, I have been terribly worried these last few weeks over the plight of 15-year-old Amira Abase.…
Forget Geneva: the real US-Iran carve-up is happening in Iraq
While Obama talks centrifuges in Geneva, Iranian-backed militia are redrawing the map of Iraq
Where Alcibiades once walked, amateur tax spies are trying to entrap poor pistachio-sellers
Athens I am walking on a wide pedestrian road beneath the Acropolis within 200 meters of the remaining Themistoclean wall…
How do bright schoolgirls fall for jihadis? The same way they fall for Justin Bieber
How could they? How could girls brought up in the wealthy West abandon their families and their own bright futures…
