The best way to deal with racial conflict is 24-hour immersion, says Charles Moskos, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, who notes that the most effectively integrated institution in America is the army.

ECONOMIST: Fire services

Written during the 1984-85 UK miners' strike after the author discovered his parents' gravestones had been daubed with obscene graffiti, the poem tackles subjects such as racial and religious conflict.

BBC: Tony Harrison to perform controversial poem V on Radio 4

The conflict over admissions based on racial preferences used to be limited to America's universities.

ECONOMIST: Reverse discrimination

Typically, it is the poor, remote rural populations, those affected by conflict, or those belonging to ethnic, racial and linguistic minorities that are most often left out of education.

UNESCO: HIV and AIDS