Pick of the Web
The quicksand of war
By the fifth day of the Iraq war it is clear that a swift US and British victory is unlikely. Regime survival, fierce Iraqi resistance in the south, and popular suspicion of the invaders, all suggest that a war lasting weeks or even months is in prospect.
Caesar crosses the Rubicon
As the first war of the new era begins, the die is cast and War Fever peaks. Through the sandstorm and the summits, can we see our way toward responsibility and the Futures of Europe? From Cyprus to Malta and Belgrade to Finland, the wind is rising...
Your open letters to the leaders
We published an open letter from a Palestinian doctor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and asked our members to draft their own letters to Tony Blair, Saddam Hussein or George W. Bush. Here are the first responses…
Blood, sweat and tears
As the Iraq war he opposed opens, Gerhard Schröder, son of an unknown soldier, confronts two thorn-spiked mountains: tackling economic sclerosis against his own party’s wishes, and rebuilding transatlantic bridges. His former cabinet colleague Michael Naumann cuts through nostalgia to ask: is this Germany dying?
A heart in New York
For openDemocracy, modern war brings new tests to our thinking, practice, and values.
Iraq - Everything Must Go!
After the war, the fire sale. After the bombs, the brands. After the Baghdad blues, Dominic Hilton lights up the night.
Gujarat's 'successful experiment'
The racial violence gripping Indian politics may appear to be the latest manifestation of an age-old problem. But this is deceptive. Modern technology and globalisation have brought about a mutation.
A nuclear-free world: in reply to Achilles Skordas
Achilles Skordas recently argued in openDemocracy that legalising nuclear weapons could help ensure they are never used. Now, a former Naval Commander makes the opposite case: not only must the use of nuclear weapons remain illegal, but the dangerous current crisis offers an opportunity to push for their complete abolition.
Fear and loathing: Arab cultures need a strategy of resistance
Concerned by the Arab world’s culture of victimhood, a German Arabist issues a vigorous challenge to the prevailing sentiment of ‘anti-globalism’ among the Arab intelligentsia, typified by the prominent Egyptian intellectual Sherif Hetata.
The sovereign state of Europe: burying democracy
The new European Constitution drafted by Valery Gicard d’Estaing’s team can be seen as establishing a new unitary state, the unaccountable playground of national executives and the European Commission, according to this convention member and leading critic of the Brussels institutions. Will the voters get the chance, through referenda, to reject the prospect of European President Blair, Prime Minister Aznar and Foreign Minister Fischer? Jens-Peter Bonde was interviewed by Paul Hilder on 27 February 2003.
The future of Europe in the shadow of Iraq
The schism in Europe and the transatlantic rift over Iraq are shaking the foundations of the Convention on the Future of Europe also. A twin presidency of Europe sounds unworkable to this Dutch participant, but a European Security Council might work. Democracy has been jettisoned in favour of fixing Europe’s chassis; but a Constitution may be hard to sell to the people… Frans Timmermans was interviewed by Paul Hilder on 28 February 2003.
A just solution: military intervention
All the arguments about war must recognise an essential truth: the vicious tyranny of Saddam Hussein can only be ended by force, and with outside help.
Return to the state of nature
The US-led war on Iraq is more than a failure of American strategy, diplomacy and thinking; in its heedless rejection of international institutions and their norms of co-operation, it represents a dangerous retreat to the law of the jungle.
The choice for protesters: anti-war or peace?
The reality of war challenges peace movements to rethink their strategy. One lesson of earlier campaigns is that activists need to move beyond mere ‘anti-war’ onto the territory of justice, solidarity, and human rights.
The slow death of American democracy
It is not just that the war on Iraq is illegal, unjust, and immoral. It is also an assault on American democracy and freedom itself. A heartfelt cry of opposition from a now fearful American writer.
The new cosmopolitanism
The shock of the new is always painful. War and diplomatic breakdown are symptoms of a transformed political order struggling to emerge. It will be robust, secular, ideas-based, flexible, and interventionist; but it needs anchoring in legitimate force, institutions and public support. This, says the director of the European Policy Forum, is the new cosmopolitanism: and the century’s agenda.
One-way traffic: the failed promise of iTV
Interactive television will bring the internet to the poor. At least that is one of the ways the British government accounts for massive spending on digital terrestrial television. But the silence is deafening as technological decisions are taken which will make delivery of this vision impossible, says the editor of Inside Digital TV.
Iran: preparing for a refugee crisis
The war in Iraq faces its Iranian neighbour with the prospect of hosting another wave of refugees. How will the country cope? Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Javad Zarif, talks to Arthur Helton about how past experience informs current humanitarian planning on the ground.
Hymn for the Unsung
Novelist and Playwright Dorfman wrote these words on the brink of a destructive war in the Gulf, where President Bush’s US forces squared up to those of Saddam Hussein. That they were written twelve years ago, on the brink of the first Gulf War, but not even the names have changed, is a chilling example of history repeating.
The right war
A Member of the European Parliament with long-standing interest in the fate of the Marsh Arabs sees their terrible fate as only one piece of evidence for the morality and legitimacy of war against the Saddam regime in Iraq.
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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