There is growing recognition that the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will be adopted on September 25 at a special United Nations summit, will depend on the ability of governments, businesses, and civil society to harness data for decision making. 

When Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote that “all that is solid melts into air”, they intended it as a metaphor for the disruptive transformations that the Industrial Revolution implied for established social norms.Today, their words can be taken literally: carbon dioxide emiss

At first glance, today’s major international crises seem to have little in common.Some, such as Greece’s debt drama, are economic disasters; others, like Syria’s implosion, are characterised by brutality and political chaos; and still others, most notably Ukraine’s predicament, f

Since December 2013, China has added more than 1,200 hectares to islands in the South China Sea.The geopolitical implications of these land reclamation efforts are well documented: The majority of the activity has taken place on the Spratly Islands, an archipelago in the waters b

There is no doubt that Earth is undergoing the sixth mass extinction in its history — the first since the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.

Nearly 30 years ago, the economists Robert Solow and Stephen Roach caused a stir when they pointed out that, for all the billions of dollars being invested in information technology, there was no evidence of a payoff in productivity.

It has been a tough year for Nigeria. In the last 12 months, the country has suffered attacks by child suicide bombers and brutal massacres by Boko Haram. The vast majority of the 276 schoolgirls abducted in Chibok last year are still missing.

Geopolitical tensions between Russia and the West have been high in recent years, but there remain areas where constructive cooperation and dialogue remain possible.These include not only acute questions like Iran’s nuclear programme but also long-term issues critical to the Arct

The Greek crisis may seem unending, but there are hints that a problem festering in Europe for far longer — the division of Cyprus — may be moving towards resolution.For the first time since 2004, there is a fragile alignment of the political stars over the eastern Mediterranean.