By Simon Bartram The term BRIC was first imprinted on the investor's psychological map of the world in 2001 through an economic thesis by Jim O'Neill. It refers to the largest emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) which were responsible for most of the global economic growth seen from the early 2000s until the financial crisis. More than a decade later, there have been immense developments in the pace of change in each of these economies, and so it's...

By Josh Black  Does it matter whether the Co-Op saves its troubled bank? In 2011, Britain’s Co-Operative Group unveiled a new marketing campaign inviting consumers to “Join the Revolution” – a movement billed as “the most radical sustainability programme in UK corporate history” designed to “spearhead its membership drive and help build a more sustainable economy.” Coming as it did in the wake of a financial crisis, just months before the country’s first ‘double-dip’ recession since the 1970s, there was a...

By Dr Katy Shaw The UK miners’ strike of 1984-5 was a defining moment in the history of the United Kingdom, one that not only illuminates the country’s near-history, but functions as a prism through which to understand the social, political and economic challenges of the twenty-first century. Despite promises of reduction rather than extinction, the 1984-5 miners’ strike was the beginning of the end for British coal. As remaining mines continued to close, national demand for fuel was increasingly met...

By Ivana Kaz A Response: Propaganda and the Very Conventional Political War A recent article entitled “Propaganda and Russia’s Unconventional Political War” showed what I feel to be a very one-sided take on the issue of war and new media. I’ve taken it upon myself to try to counter this and at the very least show that the West uses similar, if not the same, tactics. It’s important to note that although it may seem like I lean anti-West or pro-Russia, that is...

By Valentina Magri In the 1950s a group of post-World War II writers came together to establish a youth movement known as The Beat Generation. They rejected standards and materialism and appreciated style, innovation, drugs and Eastern religion. In today’s world, the beat generation has been replaced by The Beaten Generation. According to ILO figures cited by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at Stanford University last February: There are over 200 million people looking for work across the globe, 75 ...

By Luca Foschi This time the news barely reached the front page. Last week a gas attack in Kfar Zeita, a small town near the Syrian city of Hama, killed two people and injured scores. Footage on YouTube shows a medical team trying to revive several young children. Damascus and the splintered rebel front blame each other for the poison assault, but there are bigger questions at hand. Wasn’t the Assad government supposed to hand out all its chemical warfare...

By Deiniol Jones In a recent article in the New Statesman, Brendan Simms argued that we have entered a new era in relations between the Russia and the West. The annexation of Crimea and the instability in the south-east of Ukraine are overturning the post-Cold War international order. Propaganda and the innovative use of social media is an integral feature of Russia’s ‘unconventional, political warfare’, which seeks the creation of a ‘New-Russia’, a gathering together of the Russian ethnic population...

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent On and off the pitch, there is a sense that Liverpool is undergoing a revival. The port city, famed for innovation, industry and a certain musical export, was for centuries the economic powerhouse of Britain, home to a diverse population who fuelled the engine of the north. In the Shankly era the red side of the town enjoyed unparalleled football success, winning silverware at home and abroad. But its fortunes faded on the pitch as the town...

By Tomás McGoldrick, Ireland Correspondent  Last week saw the first state visit by an Irish President to Britain. For the first time since Ireland gained its independence in 1922 the relationship between the two countries is seen as strong enough for Michael D. Higgins to be able to visit his nearest neighbour in what Taoiseach Enda Kenny called ‘a golden age’ for Anglo Irish relations. There are close cultural and family links between the two countries. Britain has been the destination...