Pick of the Web
The forces of reason and unreason
No less than the life of the republic itself depends on the election of 2 November 2004, says Todd Gitlin.
Against polarisation
The left is guilty of political paranoia that drowns reasoned argument. But it is the failures and dangers of Bush’s post-9/11 policy that leave Dave Belden with a clear choice in the presidential election.
Moving on
Does United States democracy need the world’s aid? In the seventeenth of our Letters to Americans series, Swedish activist with The World Speaks, Kajsa Klein, writes to the African American writer and civic leader, Julianne Malveaux.
America's middle east lesson: Karim Souaid interviewed
The United States’s post-9/11 foreign policy will have a long-term, positive effect on middle-east politics, Lebanese banker Karim Souaid tells openDemocracy editor Anthony Barnett.
On a knife's edge - what's at stake in the American election
The real issue at stake in the presidential election is the utopian vs. realist struggle for American foreign policy, says John Hulsman. America’s role in the world is the subject of a great ideological battle.
America's Russian question
Has America forgotten Russian national interests in pursuit of its own? In the sixteenth of our Letters to Americans series, Sergei Markov, director of the Institute for Political Studies in Moscow, writes to Robert V Daniels, professor at the University of Vermont and author of ‘Russia’s Transformation’.
Polari
The clandestine culture of illegal homosexuality in Britain generated a creative linguistic response. Tom Wicker traces a hidden history.
Divided city: the crisis of London
The contemporary city, London especially, was supposed to be the model for the workable, cosmopolitan multicultural future. But neo–liberal globalisation and its disastrous consequences are reproducing in the city the growing inequalities of the world, argues the foremost analyst of multiculture.
Fukuyama's moment: a neocon schism opens
The Iraq war opened a fratricidal split among United States neo–conservatives. Danny Postel examines the bitter dispute between two leading neocons, Francis Fukuyama and Charles Krauthammer, and suggests that Fukuyama’s critique of the Iraq war and decision not to vote for George W Bush is a significant political as well as intellectual moment.
The world's US election
It’s one of the world’s biggest news stories in 2004, but the issues are not the same in China as they are in Iran. Do journalists even care in Nepal? openDemocracy’s world media monitor looks at the national media coverage of the United States presidential election in nine different countries.
Iraq and al-Qaida: the connection
America’s occupation of Iraq is making real an imagined link.
Bush has lost
The most important campaign of all, for democratic legitimacy and moral respect, has found the United States president wanting.
First-time sceptics? The view from Yale
Justine Isola reached voting age two weeks before the American presidential election in 2000. At Yale University four years on, she listens to the views of her fellow-students and reflects on the meaning of her participation in the democratic process.
Bush vs Kerry: what sort of people do we want to be?
Liberal Democrats like John Kerry share the same religion as conservative Republicans like George W Bush: a belief in America’s moral exceptionalism. But the scale of the American and world challenge facing any new president makes their contest far more than a choice of evils, says Godfrey Hodgson.
The decisive moment: John Berger interviewed
The importance of the United States election on 2 November is so great that all considerations except one – defeating Bush - need to be set aside, John Berger tells openDemocracy editor Anthony Barnett.
Islam and politics don't mix: Massoud Romdhani interviewed
The European Social Forum in London floundered over the issue of Islam’s relationship with the west, says Tunisian human rights activist Massoud Romdhani. He tells openDemocracy’s Rosemary Bechler why he prefers Marxist economist Samir Amin to Muslim reformer Tariq Ramadan.
The illogic of mini-nukes
Should bunker-busting nuclear weapons be part of United States national security strategy? Charles V Peña on a hidden faultline in the presidential race.
America in Africa: plunderer or partner?
Is America’s foreign policy a slave to political priorities and business interests? In the fifteenth of our Letters to Americans series, Ken Wiwa, justice campaigner and advocate for the Ogoni people in the Niger delta, writes to Gayle Smith, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Bring democracy back to America
The United States experienced real democracy only from 1965-2000, from the civil rights era to the post-Florida judicial coup, says Siva Vaidhyanathan. Whatever the result on 2 November, American citizens need to seize the responsibility of remaking it.
Jacques Derrida, a Cambridge epiphany
Across a dozen years, the experience of hearing Jacques Derrida lecture remains for Candida Clark an indelible invitation to a new way of seeing.
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
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Remote control war
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Conference coverage from 50.50
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
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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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