Hani Shukrallah reflects on a year when the clash of civilisations seemed a self-fulfilling prophecy

With international attention focussing on the violence that continues to consume Iraq, the fate of the country's cultural heritage sites, collections and institutions slipped from the headlines in 2004. Nevertheless, their condition remains critical, writes David Tresilian from Paris

Hanan Ashrawi argues that only non-violent resistance can hope to disarm occupation

Economic violence can be just as vicious as the world's most devastating armoury, writes Gamal Nkrumah

Benoit Scheuer looks back on the origins of the violence in Ivory Coast, which he was among the first external analysts to predict

Tarek Atia rails against the moral ambiguities in today's violence-saturated media