A triumphal tour of the Middle East by the US defence secretary is in marked contrast with the violence and insecurity that continues across Iraq. As the US’s bitter diplomatic fallout with France continues, and its forces prepare to relocate from Saudi Arabia, the shadows on the victory sun are enlarging.

The media caravanserai has moved on: after the Iraq war, the Sars race. But what else is new? A cosmonaut of inner space wields machete, butterfly-net, and surreal grasp of geopolitics to pin down the untold stories of a spinning world.

Having fled to Cairo from Liberia’s civil war, ON was plucked from the mass of waiting African refugees and thrown in jail. Why, he did not know.

Globolog descends from the verdant Washington spring to take the measure of the World Bank and IMF’s seasonal meeting. Does it offer any long-term hope to the world’s poorest countries?

The Iraq war found the Czech Republic torn between traditional loyalties to the US and UK and its ties to ‘old Europe’. As the country prepares for its referendum on membership of the EU, the Prague-based director of the Institute for European Policy asks whether the Czechs can continue this uncomfortable balancing act.

From pre-historic bog-people to ‘big hair’; virgin martyrs to dresses spun from lost souls, to the hairy Devil himself, the author of ‘The Beast to the Blonde’ takes us on a final grand tour of openDemocracy’s virtual museum.

In his third report from northern Iraq, the journalist and guide Ayub Nuri reflects on the complex tribal, religious and ethnic relations that war and liberation have brought to the surface. The intoxicating new freedoms are testing Iraqis’ patience and trust in their new rulers; the US needs urgently to prepare the ground for a democracy in which all the country’s peoples will be secure.

In the deluge of instant imagery and flaky symbolism that surrounds us today, what other people think simply adds to the confusion. Is it possible to act at all? Over a number of years and different episodes in his life, this writer moves towards a tentative conclusion….

John Lloyd’s article for openDemocracy represents a sharing of a common ground of value in serious, responsible debate across divisions of left and right.

What was the war in Iraq all about and what does it mean for international relations? First, you have to look beyond the surface explanation to what was an ambitious plan for the Middle East. Secondly, you have to subject the perceived threats and their solution to the rigours of ‘just war’ theory. Only then can you begin to assess both the true nature of the conflict so far and the extent of damage which the world order could suffer as a result.

A refugee officer with Amnesty international assesses the impact of new British proposals to send asylum seekers back to be processed in Regional Protection Zones – which may well set the agenda for a global rethink of refugee and asylum law.

What does a real-life captain of industry have to say about corporate power and responsibility? Here, the Chairman of Anglo-American (and former Chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell) responds to openDemocracy‘s roundtable, focussing on the role of multinational corporations in Africa. He says that unless business, civil society and government team up to create sound systems of governance in developing societies, wealth will tear them apart.

For centuries London has been a city of immigrants. Their first port of settlement has often been the East End area of Spitalfields. As a new museum opens there commemorating the impact of waves of these people – Huguenots and Jews, Bangladeshis and Irish, Poles and Chinese – Caroline Moorehead celebrates a historical process that continues to expand horizons and enrich lives in the present.

The Iraq war has provoked deep divisions within the political left. But the resignation of distinguished columnist John Lloyd from Britain's ‘New Statesman’ was motivated by the magazine's evasion of modern political realities and resort to moralistic anti-Americanism rather than its anti-war stance. Here he builds on his argument to ask: what future has the left if it cannot deal honestly with the rise of terrorism and the crimes of dictators?

Dis-info. dolls, Nike swooshed, Bush as FDR

American neo-conservatives, far from being innovators in United States foreign policy, draw on expansionist and ideological elements that reach back to the birth of the nation. Their success is to have combined two strands of American experience - immigration and the frontier, withdrawal and advance - with spectacular results. But the long-term damage is great, argues Godfrey Hodgson.

The US intention to build four major military bases in Iraq is part of a wider plan to gain strategic control of central and south-west Asia - the area with the bulk of world oil reserves. But America's attempt to secure its power in this way is likely to provoke a severe regional backlash.

For this acclaimed British novelist, fiction revealed itself in personal history – her Romany ancestry. Here, she tells how she came to write her latest novel, ‘Fires in the Dark’, due out on 6 May, and gives openDemocracy an exclusive advance extract.

The short Iraqi war offers a chilling prospect to Indians: the US can launch wars against medium-sized states whenever it wants. But if this renders national independence a fig leaf, it also challenges India to escape from the trap of a world ruled by violence.

Marie Curie and her husband Pierre are back to set an example for European identity. Sarah Dry pictures them in her new biography “Curie” and discusses their lives and work with fellow historian of science, Pierre Radvanyi.