Michael Petrou

Senior writer Michael Petrou has covered conflict across the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. He is the author of 'Renegades: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War', which was shortlisted for the Ottawa Book Award, and 'Is This Your First War? Travels Through the Post-9/11 Islamic World', which won it. He has a DPhil from the University of Oxford.

World

Why we must run the damn cartoons

Michael Petrou on the imperative of publishing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the prophet Muhammad

Turkish soldiers stand guard as Syrians wait behind the border fences near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province

World

Syria’s ticking refugee time bomb

Syria’s refugee crisis could explode across the Middle East and beyond—and the West’s lack of action will come back to haunt it.

Congolese refugees queue for porridge at the Nyakabande refugee transit camp in Kisoro town

World

A plan to save the world in 2015

The United Nations set eight ambitious goals for 2015 to dramatically improve global health and welfare. How close will it come to hitting its targets?

Books