Pick of the Web
Losing the battle for Arab hearts and minds
No charm offensive by US-UK coalition forces can persuade Arab public opinion that the war in Iraq is just. A study of the Arab media during the period of conflict illustrates how deep is the inner resistance of Arab minds to the seductions of western propaganda.
The immigration problem
The vast movement and mingling of peoples is a defining feature of societies in the age of globalisation. It poses huge long-term challenges. How can European policy-makers respond creatively? For a start they need ideas that look well ahead, are grounded in current realities and are tested in healthy debate. This is the aim of a collaboration between the think tank Demos, a senior and experienced Dutch civil servant Theo Veenkamp, and openDemocracy. Tom Bentley of Demos introduces the agenda that will shape our project.
The mother of all questions: how to reform global governance?
The period of crisis in international institutions and political order inaugurated on 11 September 2001 has left intact public trust in the United Nations itself. The organisation should seize the moment for a bold, imaginative reform of its institutional architecture – one that will help establish a global public contract able to address the problems of democracy, peace, sustainability and the network society that will define the new century.
Cold war II
“Old Europe” acts tough, Diamonds lose their sparkle, Gilgamesh rivals Garner.
Lost in translation: the narrowing of the American mind
The lack of foreign language translations in the United States reflects a damaging complacency in its literary and public culture, says KA Dilday.
People Flow: Migration and Europe
Does migration erode or enhance national culture? This question is highly sensitive in many European countries. The problem with the existing European approach to migration is that official distinctions between categories of migrants do not match reality. We need a new, sustainable model that recognises the evolving complexity of human mobility. In our People Flow pamphlet, openDemocracy and Demos have proposed such a model to open up debate.
The folly of mass immigration
The argument of the ‘People Flow’ report that mass immigration is normal, irreversible and beneficial to host societies is a damaging illusion. Rather, the current experience of developed western countries, faced with huge inflows of people – refugees, asylum-seekers, economic migrants – from poorer parts of the world, is unprecedented and damaging. The process can and should be stopped, in the interests of the rich diversity of nations it will otherwise crush.
People movement: the need for a World Migration Organisation
The world urgently needs effective, generous and humane ways of managing the vast movements of people across borders that is a defining feature of globalisation. A World Migration Organisation would be a crucial step in the process.
A world on the move
Nomads, immigrants, migrants, refugees – People Flow, the concept pioneered in a new openDemocracy debate, offers imaginative ways for the movement of people to be understood.
Losing the peace
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.
Meanwhile, back in the world...
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.
O.N.: between limbo and the City of the Dead
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.
Cherry blossom and weapons of mass distraction
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?
One back, two chairs: Czechs oscillate over Iraq
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.
Wrapping up 'Hair'
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.
Iraq spring
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.
Once, I was George Bush - and on television, worldwide!
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, the <i>New Statesman</i> and me
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.
Maintaining prominence: two points on the war against Iraq
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.
Not in my back yard: reforming the asylum system
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.
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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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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