Patrick Gallahue | openDemocracy

“Only war makes it possible to mobilize all of today’s technical resources while maintaining the property system.”

- Walter Benjamin, 1936

Mexico, war crimes and a slippery slope

Patrick Gallahue 3 January 2012

The drug war in Mexico has left tens of thousands of people dead and the country in peril. What difference will a new war crimes charge brought against the government make?

The Death Penalty for Drugs – ‘Shared Responsibility and Shared Consequences’

Patrick Gallahue 19 September 2011

For those governments that think the death penalty for drugs is none of their business - think again. Even though the majority of the world’s states have abolished capital punishment for all crimes, and only a tiny minority carry out the death penalty for drugs, it is often foreigners from non-death penalty countries that suffer the ‘ultimate sanction.’

Poverty and drug trafficking: a denial of mercy

Patrick Gallahue 7 September 2011

All too often, states disproportionately apply the death penalty to the 'small fish' in drug trafficking organisations. That these people usually poor, often young and occasionally ignorant of the contents of their cargo does nothing to elicit mercy

Drugs, the Death Penalty and a Cautionary Tale for Governments

Patrick Gallahue 1 June 2011

The harrowing struggle to spare a young Australian named Scott Rush from the firing squad in Indonesia appears to be over. But now Rush’s own government should confront its role in the case to avoid exposing people to similar dangers in the future.

This week's editor

Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

Europe from the bottom up

European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

A social Europe must be a political Europe
Bo Stråth

As Europe is provincialized: a reply to Etienne Balibar
Sandro Mezzadra

European debate

A republican call for a basic income
Daniel Raventos and Julie Wark

Nuclear non-proliferation

oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

Mali - the plot thickens

Remote control war

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Arab Awakening

In the months following the start of the Arab Revolutions, articles and analysis poured into openDemocracy from contributors across the Middle East and Europe. Gradually, the impact of Tahrir Square began to extend well beyond the Middle East as democratic inspiration travelled from east to west. Arab Awakening tries to capture that inspiration and use it to help us read a rapidly changing world.

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Mexico, war crimes and a slippery slope

The Death Penalty for Drugs – ‘Shared Responsibility and Shared Consequences’

Poverty and drug trafficking: a denial of mercy

Drugs, the Death Penalty and a Cautionary Tale for Governments

This week's editor

Europe from the bottom up

European debate

Democratic Wealth

Nuclear non-proliferation

oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

Mali - the plot thickens

Remote control war

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