Pick of the Web
New politics for a networked planet?
Bill Thompson opens the debate by introducing the 'e' in e-Democracy.
France and the Security Council: poker diplomacy wins
The lengthy negotiations leading to Security Council Resolution 1441 were a success for French diplomacy. France’s ‘two-step’ approach may not avert war on Iraq; but in deflecting the United States’ unilateral drive to war she has served the world’s interest.
Whenever France acts independently in the international arena and, especially if she fails to fall in line with the United States, the country is deemed to be a troublemaker. Viewed from Washington or London, we are an obvious ‘usual suspect’.
Hard facts and soft law: what's the evidence?
Before taking action in Iraq, the United States is writing a new chapter in the law of nations, by recognising the need for evidence. But the factual cornerstone for Bush’s policy remains contested.
Turkish bizarre
Giscard, Gerhard, and the latest from King Mswati III
French Kings, Penguins and the Cosmos
What will be the lasting outcomes of last week’s European Social Forum? And why does US Congressman Tom De Lay have contempt for science?
The monarchy as entertainment: Is it more than a joke?
The long, slow collapse of the British monarchy is a global story. The shrivelling of its main parliamentary chamber is a local tragedy. But behind these ‘entertaining’ and ‘dignified’ realms, ‘efficient’ power in Britain has moved to the new field of regulation. Can it be made democratic?
Strategic blowback
The Bush administration is savouring Republican electoral victory, Security Council unity, and a successful military operation in Yemen. More significant than all these is the newly-unified US Strategic Command backed by a globally-ambitious National Security Strategy. There is one problem: the scale of US military objectives will over time ensure the opposite of what is intended.
Restraining the behemoth? The US, the UN and Iraq
Diplomacy and war are marching together. After tortuous negotiations, and amidst intensive military preparations, Iraq is faced with a tough United Nations resolution challenging it to reveal its weapons secrets. But even if diplomacy leads to war, will the hard bargaining at the Security Council remind the United States of the limits of its power?
Afghanistan, one year on
There is progress, but is it too little, too late? Civil servants in Afghanistan are unpaid, roads impassable, and justice undone. Where there is no effective governance, and more money being spent on warfare than development aid, is it surprising that the Taliban still has support? A year after Kabul changed hands, a bleakly realistic assessment from the BBC’s Developing World Correspondent.
The future is navigable: South African lessons for a digital world
At a conference in London, “Beyond the Backlash – where next for the digital economy?”, South Africa’s minister of arts, culture, science and technology drew on local experience in the Eastern Cape region to argue the merits of information and communication technologies as a means of social advancement throughout the world.
The worldwide one-night house
Scattered around the world there is a belief that if you can build a house between sunset and sunrise, then the alleged owner of the land cannot evict you. There are many variations on this theme. The condition might be that the roof is in place, or that a pot is
boiling on the fire, or that smoke is emerging from the chimney.
Introducing: Hair
Iconic, mythic and symbolic. The stuff of disputes, dreams and fascination. Hair has the power to draw crowds and capture the imagination. Here, we start to look at how, and why.
Sorry: the present state of apology
The theme of ‘apology’ is in the air: governments are saying it to former colonial subjects, or to political prisoners in post-dictatorships; former terrorists to their targets; banks and businesses to looted or polluted clients; churches and cults to victims of abuse. Why are they doing it? In her approach to today’s latest ‘political enthusiasm’, we accompany Marina Warner – novelist, critic, and subversive anatomist of myth and the collective subconscious – on a sparkling tour of the literature of apology over twenty-five centuries.
Stafford Beer: the man who could have run the world
Stafford Beer achieved the hardest of all pedagogic tasks: he changed the way people think. His protean influence stretches from generations of inspired students, through Salvador Allende’s Chile, to the collective brain of openDemocracy.
Where I am coming from
A decade after his return from exile, and eight years on from the country’s first free election, our South Africa-based columnist looks back in wonder and forward in hope.
The politics of social justice: religion versus human rights?
Islamic and Western governments share a concern to define just behaviour and just government. But the advocacy of universal human rights by secular democracies challenges the idea of basing social order on religious principle. In a discussion co-hosted by the Iranian government and London’s Goethe Institute, two respected scholars debate the tensions between – and within –their different conceptions of social justice.
Hirst on Bobbitt
Paul Hirst reviews Philip Bobbitt’s book “The Shield of Achilles”.
The Shield of Achilles is the most thought provoking book on the future of war and the international system to have appeared for some considerable time.
'Not housekeepers any more': Somali women of the diaspora
She dresses like Carol Vorderman, idolises Oprah Winfrey and, although she grew up in a male-dominated society where a man’s word is law, she likes to be seen as a feminist.
Apathy: the new voting?
Once, before cynicism and television, elections were exciting. Now, apathy rules. But democracy still threatens. The sultan of indifference disdains to ask: how low can caring go?
The science of hair
What is it? Where does it come from? And where can it take us? Hair gets the full treatment in this first instalment of Objects & Projects. First up: the science.
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
Mary Kaldor on Human security
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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