Julian Borger
Julian Borger is a British journalist and non-fiction writer. He is the world affairs editor at The Guardian. He was a correspondent in the US, eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Balkans and covered the Bosnian War for the BBC. Borger is a contributor to Center of International Cooperation.
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/ 9 June 2008

Greener and leaner

The world food crisis is a tragedy frequently and passionately foretold. For years food experts warned that chronic under-investment in agriculture in developing countries, by governments and donors alike, would one day spell disaster.

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/ 29 April 2008

School meal cuts for the world’s poorest children

The World Food Programme (WFP) said this week that it has begun to cut the provision of school meals to the world’s poorest children as the global crisis over food prices worsens. Josette Sheeran, the WFP’s executive director, said the price of basic foods was rising so rapidly that a shortfall in financing for its food relief programmes had grown from -million to -million in less than two months.

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/ 4 April 2008

Bigger role for Afghan army

Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, is expected to propose a radical expansion of the Afghan army and call for his troops to take over security responsibilities in Kabul from Nato, according to officials at the alliance’s summit in Bucharest, Romania. The proposal will be discussed by Nato leaders at a meeting on Afghanistan soon.

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/ 21 January 2008

‘Now we really have a crisis’

The diplomatic stand-off between the United Kingdom and Russia entered a dangerous new phase on Wednesday as British officials denounced ”a pattern of intimidation” by Russia’s security services against British Council staff. The UK Foreign Office complained of unacceptable behaviour, after Russians working at British Council offices in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg were called in for questioning by the FSB

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/ 8 December 2007

EU summit accused of ignoring Darfur

European and African leaders arriving for Saturday’s summit in Lisbon were accused by parliamentarians and human rights groups on both continents of trying to sweep human rights issues under the carpet. Much of the criticism was aimed at the absence of Darfur from the main agenda of the European Union-Africa meeting.

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/ 22 October 2007

UK backs plan to split Taliban from within

The British government has thrown its backing behind an ambitious Afghan strategy to split the Taliban by securing the defection of senior members of the militant group and large numbers of their followers. The strategy, spearheaded by the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, reflects a significant shift in British policy, and is showing initial signs of success.

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/ 17 September 2007

Be prepared for betrayal in Darfur

The former commander of the failed United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda on Sunday warned the newly appointed head of a similar force in Darfur that he faced ”long odds” against success and predicted he would be betrayed by the very officials and governments meant to be backing the mission.

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/ 7 August 2007

US weapons for sale – just point them at Iran

The United States’s decision to arm its allies in the Middle East is being seen by many regional experts as a last resort, in anticipation of failure of Washington’s policies on both Iraq and Iran. The stated aim is to reassure Sunni Arab states that the US will stand by them in the face of uncertainty in Iraq and an increasingly powerful Iran.