The more nuclear reactors there are, the higher the risk. This is the logical conclusion made by Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. ‘As more countries build more nuclear reactors, the risk of nuclear incidents will probably grow,’ he says. And so accidents cannot be excluded. Does this mean the world is on the brink of a nuclear renaissance?   read more >>

The Global Green New Deal aims to stimulate economic recovery and reduce environmental degradation and poverty. But it will only succeed if the Group of Twenty commit to global governance and mobilize international support.   read more >>

The debate on The Broker website on how to shape a global development strategy is starting to take off. Both the lengthier and shorter contributions explore several aspects of the discussion that was presented in our last special report dated April 2010. The editorial team at The Broker has also uploaded reports from other debates, including extensive summaries of a debate at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a seminar at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. And to top it off, there is also a long interview with former Minister for Development Cooperation Bert Koenders.   read more >>

Architecture has long served the powerful and prosperous. But it is in a unique position to help reconstruct post-conflict societies by building stability and uniting divided cities.   read more >>

NGOs have been joining forces to increase their effectiveness. They need to form alliances with social movements as well, however, to avoid working in isolation from broader social currents.   read more >>

Changing realities are causing some think tanks to consider reshaping themselves as ‘think nets’, which may be cheaper to run and more conducive to open innovation. But do they have the same ability as think tanks to adapt and evolve?   read more >>

Praful Bidwai examines articles and blog posts by The Broker to discuss the disconnect between gross domestic product and social progress. He concludes that a radically new economics must be developed from the bottom up.   read more >>

Spain became the sixth largest donor in the world just 30 years after becoming a donor country itself. But the lack of management structure and severe budget cuts means it faces uncertain times.   read more >>

Both the civil war and the tsunami have had a deep impact on the mental well-being of children in Sri Lanka. Sundaram Divakalala argues that the psychosocial care of these children should be based on research, not intuition.   read more >>

Does hostility by outsiders generate generosity and solidarity towards fellow group members? This question sheds light on a puzzle that has preoccupied social scientists since Darwin's time. How can pro-social behaviour – including a desire for sharing and helping others – be evolutionarily stable? Pro-social behaviour typically comes at a cost to the sharing individual, even though it benefits others in the group. So you would think that evolutionary pressures would 'weed out' such behaviour. The idea that inter-group violence acts as a catalyst for the evolution of sociability can help us understand the dynamics of this kind of behaviour.   read more >>

What is it like to grow up male and middle class in a city where everyone sees a career in information technology (IT) as the road to success? Nicholas Nisbett, a social anthropologist, hung out at a cybercafé in Bangalore popular with young men and took an IT course with them at a private institute.A review by Mark Holmström   read more >>

There has been growing support for anti-immigrant, ultra-nationalist politics in many Western states in recent years. This deep disquiet with the realities of human mobility in the age of globalization suggests a profound political crisis. Christian Joppke’s latest work, Citizenship and Immigration, considers the future of national liberal citizenship in a century likely to be characterized by global migration. A review by Katy Long   read more >>