9/11-11/10

Thursday 11th October

Can America go modest?

Godfrey Hodgson, 11 October 2001

The United States's self-understanding is underpinned by three core elements: immigration, the frontier and exceptionalism. Now, says Godfrey Hodgson, a more complex and diverse world makes a reorientation essential.

Wednesday 10th October

9/11: What should we do now?

Tim Garden, Scilla Elworthy, S Sayyid, Mary Kaldor, and David Held, 10 October 2001

A group of key thinkers on matters of war, fear, human and international relations discuss the possible outcome of post-9/11 policies at an event held by openDemocracy and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in October, 2001. Here are some excerpts…

Tuesday 9th October

Militant moderation - rethinking 'peace'

Ann Pettitt, 9 October 2001

Is military action in Afghanistan justified? The dilemma is ethical as well as strategic, especially for a veteran of the Greenham Common campaign with family memories of the struggle against Nazism. But history is not enough: as the contours of ‘peace’ and ‘war’ change, so must our thinking.

The ordinariness of American feelings

Todd Gitlin, 9 October 2001

The reaction to 9/11 outside the United States has mixed sympathy with intense political criticism that denies the human normality of Americans’ post-disaster emotional cycle. The result is to stifle what is urgently needed, says Todd Gitlin: a global conversation between equals.

Monday 8th October

Being open to surprise

Susan Richards and Anthony Barnett, 8 October 2001

The common, consoling wisdoms are already encrusting around 11 September and its aftermath. We need to return imaginatively to the surprise we felt that day, and learn its lessons.

Sunday 7th October

The attack on 11th September and the new world order

Gregorio Planchuelo, 7 October 2001

Reforms in the functioning of the UN are needed in order to try to create a fairer world in which the threat of international terrorism can start to disappear.

The war begins

Paul Rogers, 7 October 2001

The first night of aerial assault on the Taliban indicates an extended US campaign. But is this what bin Laden wants?

Wednesday 3rd October

Towards a partnership of equals: European-US relations

Paul Gillespie, 3 October 2001

The long-term trends in transatlantic relations are towards equality. After 11 September, will they be set back by an intensification of the unilateralism of Bush’s first year? Or will current, necessary coalition-building become the harbinger of a progressive renewal?

A way out of the (televised) endgame?

Nick Couldry, 3 October 2001

The acts of 11 September had a symbolic as well as political meaning, and can be seen as a violent challenge to a world where symbolic inequality parallels and reinforces other kinds of inequality. Widening the media landscape to create a real global dialogue is now essential.

The Media strand: 11 September and beyond

David Hayes, 3 October 2001

Between the debates on public service broadcasting and on the power of media corporations, fell the awful shadow of 11 September. How will the media strand of openDemocracy respond?

What now for the anti-globalisers?

Paul Kingsnorth, 3 October 2001

The US-led advocates of borderless trade want to press on with their mission in the wake of the WTC assaults. From the perspective of a Bolivian conference of grassroots campaigners, such moral blindness may be the prelude to intensified revolt.

On the eve

Paul Rogers, 3 October 2001

What will be the effects of a United States-led attack on Afghanistan? The informed analysis of the aftermath of 11 September 2001 continues.

Radical Islam and 9/11: inside the fundamentalist mind

Murat Belge, 3 October 2001

The abstract universalism that produces extremist violence is rooted in the modern intellectual and psychological complexes of the Islamic world, says Murat Belge.

Hooligans of the Absolute: Black Pluto's door after 11 September

Tom Nairn, 3 October 2001

The impulse of the attacks was not confidence but despair – the strike of a miserable old world against the unsettling but promising new.

Friday 28th September

Afghanistan: the problem with military action

Paul Rogers, 28 September 2001

An armed attack by the United States on the Kabul regime would create more problems than it solved.

Thursday 27th September

The two 11 Septembers

Ariel Dorfman, 27 September 2001

On the same date twenty-eight years apart, the two American cities which shaped Ariel Dorfman’s life - Santiago and New York - have now suffered catastrophe. Their terrible fate, he reflects, also offers the chance to repair damaged humanity.

New war, new justice

Mary Kaldor and David Held, 27 September 2001

The response to the attacks on the United States must be the creation of a new global covenant for justice and peace, say David Held and Mary Kaldor.

Europe united?

Kirsty Hughes, 27 September 2001

Can the EU rise to the challenge of 11 September and respond to this crisis with a unity it failed to deliver on the Balkans?

Wednesday 26th September

The Real Third Way: Britain's lesson

Paul Hirst, 26 September 2001

One aftershock of the attacks on America was the postponement of ‘normal’ politics. As they cautiously return in Britain with the party conference season, a reflection on the British experience since 1997 reveals the contrast between New Labour’s large ambitions and its want of the democratic radicalism needed to realise them.

Tuesday 25th September