They were created by imperial powers, but war and terrorism is posing risks to the shape and future of many nations, writes Shlomo Avineri

Thousands of Shiite militiamen have paraded in Baghdad and several other cities in southern Iraq with heavy weaponry, signalling their readiness to take on Sunni militants who seized much of the country’s north.

Greece has always looked at its classical age as a usable past but there is no solace in the classics to inspire the country out of its financial and economic woes. What Greece needs is a cultural revolution, writes Fouad Ajami

IF he wrote about the tribulations of turnip growing or the life story of, say, Noel Dempsey, Peter Ackroyd would still produce a bestseller.

ARTO DER HAROUTUNIAN’S name may not be familiar to many but for those with a penchant for North African food, it’s a name worth noting. Arto was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1940 and grew up in the Levant but came to Britain with his parents as a child and remained there for most of his life.