David Cameron surprised some of his own backbenchers recently with clarion calls for a generational fight against al-Qaeda as an existential threat to Britain's "way of life." For some in his party, at least, the new vocabulary came slightly too close to old refrains from the Bush-Blair lexicon.

Notwithstanding, Cameron...

David Cameron got an apparent boost for the 'cake and eat it' approach to Europe last week, when finance ministers of the European Union (EU) agreed on the terms of an embryonic Eurozone Banking Union.

The agreement could be more important historically than the recondite details suggest: it affords greater...

According to last week's poll from YouGov-Cambridge, a majority of Brits think Abu Qatada should be deported from the UK 'regardless' of whether or not a fair trial abroad can be guaranteed. In contrast, just 22% said he should be deported 'only if' a fair trial can be guaranteed.

The...

From Starbucks to Centrica and the BBC, there are plenty of headlines this week to amplify the signature theme of modern business news, namely that the developed world is seeing an historic backlash against corporate greed. We are also apparently going through a 'Great Empowerment' in popular terms to match...

According to GOP Policy Chairman Jason Whitman, you can blame the Tea Party for this week's failure by Republicans to win control of the US Senate. Or at least that was the suggestion when he tweeted 'thanks' to the Party's candidate for Missouri, Todd Akin, 'for helping us lose the...

Taking stock of US foreign policy after four years of the Obama Presidency, YouGov's academic think-tank, YouGov-Cambridge, recently surveyed a special 'defence panel' of nearly 1,500 professionals from the UK defence and security community, including the armed forces, defence industry, Westminster and diplomatic ranks, in partnership with the Royal United...

For all the global excitement, last week's presidential debate was less a clash of policies than a squabble about who owns the same ones.

Beyond the usual sparring over which candidate is more reliable in the face of foreign threats, or which party is more to blame for them, there...

Forget Greece; what would you do about Iran? Behind the 'Eurosis' that currently churns the news-cycle, foreign policy experts are divided and fearful about a lurking problem that could arguably displace the Euro as the most pressing Western headache of 2012.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports that medium-level...

By all accounts, 30 October, 2011, marked a potential turning point in the build-up to Pakistan's next general election. Imran Khan drew crowds of over 250,000 to a speech in Minar-e-Pakistan, Lahore, as leader of his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), surprising rivals and supporters alike with one of the largest...

Egypt should be careful what it wishes for. According to YouGov's latest survey of Egyptian public opinion, a majority of 67% want Hosni Mubarak, their deposed president, to face a death sentence if convicted of the charges against him. This compares with only 22% who oppose the sentence....

If Pakistani elections were a genuine popularity contest, then you might assume the country's next leader will be Imran Khan, the philanthropist and former cricket star who has formed his own political party, "Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf" (PTI).

In a recent opinion poll conducted in Pakistan by the think-tank