Azeem Ibrahim

Following Brexit, nestled in between an apparently unmoored America and a Europe that is drifting away, buffeted by the assaults on democracy and human rights waged by Russia and China, the UK looks seriously at risk of heading for diplomatic isolation, while also forced to accommodate China, Russia and other authoritarian states as it seeks to find its place in a polarised and unstable world. The choices the UK will have to make may become even more stark as the alternative sources of global authority, such as the UN, lose their influence. This, combined with the domestic fixation of reducing migration, runs the risk of producing a poor, insular, irrelevant state with little international credibility. However, the UK's position is not beyond hope. Outside of the EU, and in a world where most other countries remain wary of the US's intentions and influence as a great power, there is a need for some actor to try to bring together the democracies of the world around issues such as climate change, science, innovation, the refugee crisis and terrorism. An independent UK can, and should, take a lead in these efforts, as it now finds itself free from the need to conform to the EU consensus mechanisms. But first, this cannot be piecemeal, we need a grand strategy, and not one just shared among a narrow foreign policy elite but one that can command wider domestic support. In this remarkable work of foreign policy analysis Dr Azeem Ibrahim shows Britain the pathway back to global relevance and success.

Liberal democracy has produced the most freedom and security for the most people of any form of government in human history. For a while, and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we believed that this would be enough. Yet, today, we face an anti-liberal backlash--and we bear much of the responsibility. Western leaders learnt the wrong lesson from the Soviets' downfall, seeing it as an ideological victory and adopting a 'total liberalism' with the same rigidity that had just brought down communism. Now, the economic and foreign policy failures of neoliberalism have fatally undermined the public's faith in the associated political system, liberal democracy. Cue disaffected masses, opportunistic populists, canny Russian sabotage, and the Chinese model as a powerful alternative--where do we go from here? From Tsarist conspiracy theories and Italian corruption to revolution in America, France and China, this book shows the roots of our century's descent into crisis. Exposing the critical mistakes of contemporary liberals, Azeem Ibrahim urges a rethink to renew liberal democracy, domestically and internationally. His incisive narrative of the West's recent past is sober and sobering; his vision for the future hopeful yet urgent--for only a liberal order can save vulnerable lives and confront global emergencies.

According to the United Nations, Myanmar's Rohingyas are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Only now has the media turned its attention to their plight at the hands of a country led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Yet the signs of this genocide have been visible for years. For generations, this Muslim group has suffered routine discrimination, violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, extortion, and other abuses by the Buddhist majority. As horrifying massacres have unfolded in 2017, international human rights groups have accused the regime of complicity in an ethnic cleansing campaign against them. Authorities refuse to recognise the Rohingyas as one of Myanmar's 135 'national races', denying them citizenship rights in the country of their birth and severely restricting many aspects of ordinary life, from marriage to free movement. In this updated edition, Azeem Ibrahim chronicles the events leading up to the current, final cleansing of the Rohingya population, and issues a clarion call to protect a vulnerable, little known Muslim minority. He makes a powerful appeal to use the lessons of the twentieth century to stop this genocide in the twenty-first.

By 2010, it was possible to see al-Qaeda as an organization in decline. It had lost militarily in Iraq and seemed politically irrelevant to the popular revolts during the Arab Spring. However, the Syrian civil war has allowed it to rebuild and, in the form of the local Al Nusrah Front, use a revised political and military strategy. This important monograph considers if these apparent gains can be sustained or whether al-Qaeda's ideology will again alienate other salafist groups and the wider Sunni population. Dr. Azeem Ibrahim bases his report on available evidence, interviews, and visits to Syria. At the moment, the Assad government seems to be making some gains, and the rebel forces are split into three broad groups of the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic Front (backed by the Gulf States), and two al-Qaeda groups (Al Nusrah and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS]). ISIS has alienated all the other factions and is likely to retreat to Iraq, but the Al Nusrah Front...