Afghanistan as we know it was created in the 18th century for reasons of military defense. Throughout Afghan history, there was never really any cohesive agent to bind the various ethno-religious groups which comprise the country. Though many Afghans...

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has exposed divisions in Nato by accusing the west of treating Iran unfairly over its nuclear programme and describing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, its vehemently anti-western president, as a friend. In a...

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is due to go on trial for war crimes next week. But the truth about the infamous 1995 Srebrenica massacre is still being sought by victims' families, who say the world has forgotten this terrible...

Six months into his stint as a guard at Guantánamo, Terry Holdbrooks converted to Islam. What made him do it, asks Sarfraz Manzoor Terry Holdbrooks arrived at Guantánamo detention camp in the summer of 2003 as a godless 19-year-old with a love of...

Israel received an uncomfortable reminder of international anger over the Gaza war today when lawyers representing 16 Palestinians asked a London court to issue an arrest warrant for its defence minister, Ehud Barak, who is visiting Britain. After a...