Pick of the Web
Who is afraid of Disneyfication? A response to Sonja Hegasy
In spring 2003, Sonja Hegasy argued in openDemocracy that Arab intellectuals’ evasion of the challenge of globalisation was central to the Arab world’s culture of victimhood. Here, Mona Abaza – writing before the death of Edward Said, a key reference-point in the argument – responds that the seizure of Enlightenment values by an American-led imperial project undermines the search for an equal relationship between east and west.
America's Iraqi dilemma
The drastic security problems facing United States forces in post-war Iraq confound the optimistic forecasts of six months ago. Strategic planners are rethinking, but in circumstances beyond their control.
Y.K.L: abused in Ivory Coast, rejected in London
Y.K.L survived terrible torments in her West African homeland only to be denied asylum in Britain. On London’s streets, she joins the forgotten, global army of the displaced.
Smoking Guns
Iranian uranium, Transatlantic spats, French fags
Managing Britain's People Flow
The People Flow discussion on openDemocracy has charted the question of how Europe should address the mass movement of migrants over the next fifty years. This issue has multiple national dimensions too. Here, leading participants in Britain’s migration policy debate how one nation-state is coping with the challenge of finding definition and cohesion in a world of flux.
Peaced Off: My Nobel Hell
Yassir Arafat, Henry Kissinger, and Menachem Begin have all been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. So where did it all go wrong for Dominic Hilton?
A Different Ocean
“Nobody in de world kin dive like we”. Sienna Miller’s life on the edge of The Silent, the lagoon far below her island village, starts to shift with the arrival of two white strangers. The first part of Jacob Ross’s haunting story of belonging and self-discovery.
Wanted in Iraq: a roadmap to free elections
The post-war turmoil in Iraq is exacerbated by a vacuum of political authority. Neither the Coalition Provisional Authority nor its appointed Governing Council offer Iraqis what they really need.
Noble lies and perpetual war: Leo Strauss, the neocons, and Iraq
Are the ideas of the conservative political philosopher Leo Strauss a shaping influence on the Bush administration’s world outlook? Danny Postel interviews Shadia Drury – a leading scholarly critic of Strauss – and asks her about the connection between Plato’s dialogues, secrets and lies, and the United States-led war in Iraq.
What was initially an anti-war argument is now a matter of public record. It is widely recognised that the Bush administration was not honest about the reasons it gave for invading Iraq.
Part 5: Networks of power and freedom
Part 5 of The new information ecosystem: networks of power and freedom
Democracy, Democracy, Democracy
Saudi elections, Cuban freedom, Chinese trade
The real curse of oil
Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria…oil is curse not blessing for developing nations. Its real impact is to intensify corruption, civil conflict, and political patronage. A solution requires practical cures not conspiracy theories. Iraq is the place to start.
Asylum-seekers and state racism in Europe
People fleeing to Europe to seek protection against human rights abuses are trapped in a further cycle of degradation. With a panoply of controls, states ignore or circumvent existing conventions across the continent. How then can the rights of asylum-seekers be defended?
Afghanistan and Iraq: in search of stability
The first two targets of the ‘war on terror’ are far from pacified. Germany and Turkey are responding to United States requests to help, but the scale of the international support needed far exceeds current prospects.
The nasty truth about the noble lie
The long walk to freedom takes place across language. What happens when words are abused by power, cheapened by war, or corrupted by media? This philosopher-TV executive surveys openDemocracy’s debate on journalism and war, and asks whether George Orwell’s dystopian vision of thought-killing ‘Newspeak’ has been realised in contemporary American journalism.
The real deal in California
Both the people and their movie-star governor may pay a heavy price, but California’s flawed recall election is still democracy in action.
Cancúnblog: from Mexico to the world
The unexpected outcome of the World Trade Organisation summit in Cancún, Mexico in September 2003 led to vigorous debate in openDemocracy. Caspar Henderson, our globalisation editor, explains how an innovative experiment – a hybrid of blog and discussion forum – was born.
Yiren Congzheng: 'Actors engaging in politics', or Arnie as seen from Beijing
The election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California has a different impact on the Chinese public and its intellectual elite.
The Galileo project: science, journalism, and Jupiter
In September 2003, the spacecraft Galileo disintegrated in Jupiter’s dense atmosphere, after fourteen years of measuring the planet’s satellites. A success? Yes, but also a cautionary tale of how the media misrepresents scientific work and achievement.
The perils of simplification: a reply to Lutz Kleveman
Lutz Kleveman’s portrait of the political dynamics at work in Central Asia is inaccurate and simplified, argues Rosemary Righter. Western influence there is not oil-driven, imperial, nor indeed only American. The reality is more complex - and hopeful.
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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Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
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Lis Howell On broadcasting
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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