Every five days, on average, somewhere in the world, a journalist is murdered for being a journalist. Nine out of ten times, no one is prosecuted, creating an atmosphere of impunity that extends beyond death threats or violence.

Interviews are always tricky. If an unscrupulous interviewer is looking for a particular answer or claim, they have the power to edit, manipulate, or even rewrite their subject's words to that end.

Could the world soon witness another devastating war on the Korean Peninsula? That question looms large in many conversations these days.

Recent disease outbreaks, like Ebola and Zika, have demonstrated the need to anticipate pandemics and contain them before they emerge.

Every time a major corporate cybersecurity breach occurs, the response looks pretty much the same: cry “havoc!” and call in the cyber first responders to close the breach. But by the time an executive or two stands before a few government committees, proffering some explanation and pledging to beef up security protocols, people—including the hackers—have largely moved on.

Since 2013, China has been pursuing its “Belt and Road” initiative, which aims to develop physical infrastructure and policy linkages connecting more than 60 countries across Asia, Europe, and Africa.

The patent system can be thought of as awarding a prize. But the prize impedes the flow of knowledge, reduces the benefits derived from it, and distorts the economy.

The United States and Iran have rarely agreed on how to proceed with nuclear talks or other elements of their bilateral relations. But synergies and similarities between two factions—Iranian hardliners and the hawks of the current US administration—are as counterintuitive as they are profound.

After the mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 1, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that, “It's particularly inappropriate to politicise an event like this. It just happened within the last day and a half.”

Twenty years after the Asian financial crisis, South Korea seems to have learned its lesson, having taken great pains to strengthen its economic resilience.

The Middle East is often viewed as a region waylaid by feelings of collective humiliation and violent rivalries, both between and within countries.

The outcome of Germany's federal election holds a crucial lesson for the European Union: even the country that has been the EU's bedrock of stability amid crisis is not immune to political fragmentation and polarisation.

Travelling through Germany in the run-up to its federal election on September 24, one cannot help but be struck by the lingering signs of profound trauma from the 2015 refugee crisis.

This summer, at literary festivals and bookstores around the world, readers celebrated the 20-year anniversary of the debut of the first book in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series—Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (re-titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)—and with good reason.

To most people, “development” is best measured by the quantity of change – like gains in average income, life expectancy, or years spent in school. The Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure of national progress that my office at the United Nations Development Programme oversees, combines all three statistics to rank countries relative to one another.

A key agenda item at this year's annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, under way this week, will be to assess global progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN's consensus roadmap for solving the world's biggest challenges by 2030.

US President Donald Trump's nearly eight months in office have been characterised by a series of disturbing political developments.

Shock belts, spiked batons, and electrified thumbscrews can serve no other purpose than to inflict pain on people. But despite the fact that torture is prohibited by international law, goods such as these are still produced and sold, finding their way to buyers around the globe.

The United States and China have reached a precarious moment in their relationship. Ensuring a peaceful outcome will be the greatest geopolitical challenge of the twenty-first century. Are our leaders up to it?

Most pundits agree that the least bad way to deal with North Korea's nuclear sabre rattling is a continued combination of tight containment and aggressive diplomacy. Fewer, however, have recognised that the least bad military option is a Chinese invasion, or regime change forced through China's threat to launch one.