Pick of the Web
'The Fruits of War: how military conflict accelerates technology,' Michael White
“A superb history of science and innovation that shows how the best of humanity often flows from its worst.”
Getting democracy into focus
The very potency of democracy as word and idea creates an impulse to extend it beyond plausible limits, and this is at the root of the flaws in Anthony Barnett & Isabel Hilton’s article. John Dunn, professor of political theory at the University of Cambridge, continues openDemocracy’s debate.
The future of dissent: hacking Chinese censorship
Should we despair at the power of an authoritarian regime to censor the most democratic force of our time? Giovanni Navarria sees a ray of hope burst through the clouds hanging over Chinese netizens.
Multiculturalism and 7/7: neither problem nor solution
Both multiculturalists like Tariq Modood and Bhikhu Parekh and their “solidaristic” critics like Gilles Kepel and David Goodhart are locked into the dead-end of identity politics. The real challenge is to create a genuinely inclusive and liberal public space, says Paul Kelly.
Russia's post-orange empire
“The political personality of Soviet power as we know it today”, George Kennan wrote in his now famous “Mr X” long telegram of February 1946, “is the product of ideology and circumstances.” The political personality of Russian power as we know it today, in October 2005, is the product of a lack of ideology and…circumstances. The devil is in the circumstances.
Women and security: 'You cannot dance if you cannot stand'
Can women make a difference to peace and security?
After Syria
The departure of Syrian military forces has left affected village communities in Lebanon with mixed feelings, reports Alex Klaushofer.
Why torture is OK
How can a “civilised society” tolerate the inhumane treatment endured by the people in Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and other American prisons?
Kashmir: the politics of an earthquake
The jihadi-led aid efforts after the cataclysmic Kashmir earthquake expose deep fractures in Pakistani politics, reports Jan McGirk.
They say that not even a single leaf on a tree can shake in Pakistan without the army and its dreaded intelligence service, the ISI, knowing about it.
Saddam's trial: the needs of justice
The trial of the former Iraqi dictator must meet basic standards of fairness and transparency if it is to give Iraqis the justice they and the world deserve, say Hanny Megally & Veerle Opgenhaffen.
London's eye on world cinema
Colin MacCabe looks back on half a century of film as the 49th London Film Festival opens today.
Illuminating gender - 1325 and the UN
As one of the sponsors of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, I am glad openDemocracy is taking the fifth anniversary of its adoption to assess its value, examine how well it has been implemented and discuss its implications for the role women must come to play in the national sphere and in global society.
Tariq Modood's multicultural project
The complexity and diversity of British Muslims resists the multicultural model that scholars like Tariq Modood seek to impose on them, write Neville Adams, Stephan Feuchtwang & Kazim Khan.
Against boycott and its rhetoric: a reply to Omar Barghouti
“The actual meaning of ‘true peace based on justice’ is that Israel must be punished before a Palestinian is allowed to greet an Israeli in the street”. The Palestinian writer Samir El-youssef dissects the language of Omar Barghouti’s call for a boycott of Israel.
The new Latin choir: democracy vs injustice in Latin America
6,000 radicals shouldered their flags through the baroque masonry of central Salamanca, but for once their cries had already been heeded. Obligingly, and at the very time the protesters were gathering, representatives at the fifteenth annual summit of “Ibero-America” – the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking nations of Iberia and Latin America – had signed up to a declaration thick with pledges to cut poverty, spread wealth, institute the right to work and respect migrants. “Before there was always a horrific neo-liberal choir, and you always felt the odd one out. Now nobody defends neo-liberalism,” declared an ebullient Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, at the summit’s end.
'Love me, or leave me?' The strange case of Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk, the renowned Turkish writer, was charged in September 2005 for “publicly humiliating” Turkey and is currently awaiting trial. His compatriot Murat Belge explains how this son of Istanbul has become a scapegoat for a paranoid press, and looks at the wider implications for Turkish national identity.
The 'Muslim community': a European invention
Europeans’ tendency to view immigrants from Algeria and Turkey, Pakistan and Iraq as belonging to a single, homogeneous “Muslim community” reflects an essentialist, neo-colonial view of the “other” which carries negative political consequences, argue Hazem Saghieh & Saleh Bechir.
A world becoming more peaceful?
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There appear good reasons for most people to think that the world is becoming a more dangerous place. In the four years since the 9/11 attacks, the George W Bush administration has pursued a vigorous counter-terrorism policy that has already terminated two regimes and has, at a conservative estimate, seen at least 40,000 people killed, most of them civilians. United States forces are mired in a deep and bitter insurgency in Iraq, and almost 20,000 more troops are active against a determined Taliban guerrilla force in Afghanistan; they have also engaged in border clashes with Syria, and are involved in a tense standoff with Iran over the latter’s nuclear developments.
'If You Were Me 2', London Film Festival
Opening this week at the London Film Festival, a still from “If You Were Me 2,” a series of short films on human rights and activism by five of South Korea’s most promising directors.
Kashmir: brothers in aid
The Kashmir earthquake is still claiming its victims, but Michel Thieren sees humanitarian and political lessons from hurricane Katrina being applied in its painful aftermath.
Within two months of each other, two tragedies on an epic scale – hurricane Katrina and the earthquake centred on Pakistan-administered Kashmir – have devastated the environments and blighted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Do they offer any lessons in how humanitarian work today should operate?
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
Women and the Arab Spring
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
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Remote control war
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Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
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