International

Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker

Terror and Consent by Philip Bobbitt

An American commander explains why Afghanistan is winnable

Why Britain’s ‘Budget Support’ is the worst kind of foreign aid.

The world reacted with horror when it saw a 12-year-old boy shot dead by Israeli soldiers. But the footage, it transpires, told a lie

Northern Europeans are tying themselves in knots about patriotism and identity politics

Each new translation of Islam’s most sacred text offers fresh insights into its meaning. Yet there are still surprises in a book that is not only hard to read, but hard to know how to read, even for Muslims

‘A nuclear Iran is not just Israel’s problem. Stopping its programme is a paramount Western interest’

Wolf Totem is a disconcerting mixture of nationalism, lupine metaphors and nostalgia for the age of nomads. But what does the novel’s runaway success tell us of the aspirations of the new China?

Former Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson challenges David Cameron’s Conservatives, represented by the party’s policy chief Oliver Letwin, to break with the consensus on global warming. Their discussion is chaired by Standpoint editor Daniel Johnson