What goes on in the mind of a suicide bomber? What motivates someone to spend their last day on the planet blowing up complete strangers? Bad enough, perhaps, if the strangers in question are soldiers…
Shattered windows at Brussels international airport.
EPA/Laurent Dubrule
Scholars specializing in extremism are beginning to unravel how people – including a higher number of Americans than one might expect – become radicalized to embrace political violence.
The scene in Brussels.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert / AP/Press Association Images
With the Iran deal, Obama may be repeating a famous strategic misstep from World War II.
The ills that afflict any society can be dealt with much more effectively when the arts are integrated into the national conversation.
John Gollings/AAPONE
What if Malcolm Turbull’s conception of “21st-century government” imagines a healthy civil society and a responsive economy that values debate, imagination, difference and surprise - all provided by the arts.
Belgian security forces patrol near the Jewish museum in Brussels.
EPA/Julien Warnand
Even as the world was still trying to make sense of the Paris attacks, attention suddenly shifted towards Brussels with the news that two suspected jihadis had been killed in a police anti-terror raid…
In Belgium as in Australia, there are no longer any surviving veterans of the Great War to witness the commemorations of its centenary. However, just as in Australia, there remains an immense interest…
Separatist leader Bart de Wever gearing up for Sunday’s elections.
EPA
On May 25 Belgium will hold its regional, federal and European elections. Like in 2010, the centre-right and Flemish nationalist New Flemish Alliance (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie or N-VA) is expected to be…
In Belgium the question is not so much about membership as how much membership.
EPA/Olivier Hoslet
Both from the outside and the inside, Belgium is often perceived as a pioneer of the European Union. Locked between France and Germany, the open economy of the country benefits largely from common rules…
Belgium is a world away from Australia on this issue, with a completely different culture and history of euthanasia.
Image from shutterstock.com
Ben White, Queensland University of Technology and Lindy Willmott, Queensland University of Technology
Late last week, the Belgian parliament passed laws that granted children access to euthanasia. The laws have been controversial and attracted significant discussion internationally. Opponents of reform…
Beer taxes played an integral part in establishing Belgian territory.
Flickr\ ee b b
Around the world, Belgium is famous for its beers and its brewing tradition. However, there is another link between beer and Belgium: historically, the country owes its very existence to beer. Surprisingly…