Short answers, pulled from the story.
Third World Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal managed by Global South Ltd and published by Taylor and Francis. Despite its name suggesting quarterly publication, it is in fact published monthly.
Shahid Qadir is the founding editor and chair of the editorial board of Third World Quarterly. He is also one of two directors of Global South Ltd, the company that manages the journal.
The article "The Case for Colonialism" by political scientist Bruce Gilley, published in September 2017, caused the controversy. Scholars from the London School of Economics described it as a travesty and the academic equivalent of a Trump tweet.
15 of the 34 members of the international editorial board resigned on the 19th of September 2017. They cited a flawed peer review process and inaccurate statements from editor-in-chief Shahid Qadir.
More than 10,000 supporters signed a petition on Change.org calling for the retraction of Bruce Gilley's "The Case for Colonialism."
Noam Chomsky, a board member, opposed retraction. He said rebuttal offers a great opportunity for education, not only in this case, arguing that open debate was the appropriate response rather than removal of the article.