editor's note

openDemocracy hosts debates. We do not advocate an editorial line. Editor’s notes are light, brief comments on aspects of the current edition - and how it relates to current events.
Thursday 20th December

2007: the top fifty

openDemocracy authors, 20 December 2007
We published 750 articles this year. Here are fifty of the best!
Monday 20th December

The editor's pick of the year

Anthony Barnett, 20 December 2004
openDemocracy asked its editor to choose his three favourite texts from 2004.
Thursday 9th December

Parties for everyone?

Anthony Barnett, 9 December 2004
George Papandreou outlines his approach to a new way of doing politics
Wednesday 8th December

Optimists in dark times

Anthony Barnett, 8 December 2004
Why is an argument between two optimists worth time and attention in a dark world? openDemocracy editor Anthony Barnett defends the publication of Tom Nairn’s long and challenging response to Timothy Garton Ash
Thursday 2nd December

Tom Nairn vs Timothy Garton Ash

Anthony Barnett, 2 December 2004
The lesson of Tom Nairn’s post–imperial critique of Timothy Garton Ash’s “Free World” is that nation–states and their peoples, not Anglospheric empires, will shape the 21st century. But this process needs a politics. Where is it?
Thursday 18th November

A time to think hard

Anthony Barnett, 18 November 2004
Bush’s re–election has opened a new historical period. Tough, clear thought on a global scale is needed to understand and democratically shape it, says Anthony Barnett.
Wednesday 3rd November

After the tears

Anthony Barnett, 3 November 2004
John Kerry’s supporters must now avoid finger-pointing and self-flagellation, says Anthony Barnett in New York – and instead build a new, international politics of globalisation to replace Bush’s politics of fear.
Wednesday 27th October

Bush has lost

Anthony Barnett, 27 October 2004
The most important campaign of all, for democratic legitimacy and moral respect, has found the United States president wanting.
Wednesday 20th October

Why the United States and Israel?

Anthony Barnett, 20 October 2004
The American election debate has ignored Israel and Palestine. All the more reason for openDemocracy to pose the issue in a responsible, serious way, says Anthony Barnett.
Wednesday 13th October

Reinhard Hesse

Anthony Barnett, 13 October 2004
Anthony Barnett remembers Gerhard Schröder’s speechwriter and a formative influence on openDemocracy for whom “nothing was foreign except the second rate", followed by the eulogy Anthony gave at the memorial meeting in front of the Chancellor and Foreign Minister Joskar Fischer.
Wednesday 8th September

America and the world after 9/11

Anthony Barnett, 8 September 2004
The choices the United States made after 11 September 2001 raise fundamental questions of political judgment. Anthony Barnett outlines how openDemocracy seeks to answer them.
Wednesday 23rd June

It's the long term, stupid

Anthony Barnett, 23 June 2004
The United Nations is seeking to reinvent itself. The Iraq disaster should make sure the world listens, says Anthony Barnett.
Wednesday 9th June

Arguing Iraq

Anthony Barnett, 9 June 2004
Several openDemocracy readers felt that our presentation of the Iraqi roundtable was biased. The editor responds.
Wednesday 2nd June

Paying for Iraqi voices

Anthony Barnett, 2 June 2004
We publish, you pay. The deal? Quality. The price? Modest. The reward? Your money funds Iraqis too. The catch? You have to read articles like this from the editor.
Wednesday 26th May

The Iranian option

Anthony Barnett, 26 May 2004
As the United States abandons a key Iraqi ally, is its intention to focus on a new military target: Iran?
Wednesday 12th May

A world of equals

Anthony Barnett, 12 May 2004
The abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison poses the most severe question for the United States: can it consider non-Americans as moral equals?
Wednesday 21st April

Who brings democracy?

Anthony Barnett, 21 April 2004
The recent experience of Spain, India and Turkey highlight a profound trend in international affairs: the globalisation of democracy.
Wednesday 7th April

Liberation after the liberation

Anthony Barnett, 7 April 2004
One year on from Saddam’s fall, Iraq’s people need more help, interest and attention from the international community.
Wednesday 31st March

Voicing America

Anthony Barnett, 31 March 2004
openDemocracy’s aim in publishing three new columnists covering America’s election is not neutrality but a well-argued partiality that will engage and include people from around the world.
Friday 12th March

Living through terrorism

Anthony Barnett, 12 March 2004
The attack in Madrid should not be looked at as only European, or even only political, but in the context of a human chain of being and responsibility.
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