The period since 9/11 has renewed global debate about the nature of United States power and influence in a world being transformed by globalisation. openDemocracy writers - American and non-American - bring fresh perspectives to bear on the Iraq war, the question of empire, unilateralism, the "end of history", neo-conservatism, and foreign policy under and after George W Bush
Democracy from America? An Arab's advice
Any United States effort to bring democracy and freedom to the middle east needs to respect eight principles of action, says Rami G. Khouri.
Iran: the coming war
Will the United States attack Iran? Eight major arguments say no. Each one dissolves on inspection, says Dan Plesch.
Globalising freedom
Why do people around the world “increasingly see America as illegitimate and arrogant, even imperial?” Thomas N Hale on George W Bush’s democratic deficit.
Beyond the barbarians at the gate: Timothy Garton Ash interviewed
The “free world” of the United States-plus-Europe no longer exists. Can it be reinvented as a world of freedom? The leading liberal internationalist Timothy Garton Ash talks to Dominic Hilton of openDemocracy.
Bush's choice: messianism or pragmatism?
George W Bush’s language of freedom is not benevolent idealism but ideological weapon, says Anatol Lieven.
Fashionable anti-Americanism
The United States is burdened with the pains, frustrations, and hatreds of the rest of the world. Ignorant and unfair, says Dominic Hilton, in a scathing and witty critique of a disabling obsession.
Letters to Americans: the hidden treasure of the US vs the World
Dominic Hilton was part of the team working on openDemocracy’s “My America: Letters To Americans” project, in which eighteen non-American nationals wrote to counterparts in the United States. Here he gives his view on aspects of those exchanges and America’s role in role in world affairs.
Why the Democrats lost: an interview with Todd Gitlin
Todd Gitin’s acute, informed, acerbic “Our election year” weekly column has been an openDemocracy highlight of 2004. He discusses the lessons of a tumultuous political year in American politics with Solana Larsen.
How the Democrats can win: an interview with Colin Greer
Colin Greer, director of the New World Foundation, tells openDemocracy’s Solana Larsen that the Democrats must learn a different way of thinking and acting – in effect, to become a real political party rather than a “message machine” – if they want to regain legitimacy and support across the United States.
The Free World's end?
Tom Nairn presents a searching critique of Timothy Garton Ash’s book Free World. He argues that it seeks to conserve the global status quo through a comforting subordination to American power. His wide-ranging survey suggest that the new century is not going to embrace any such outcome.
After Baghdad, Tehran
The United States’s “war-gaming” of Iran suggests that – despite the Iraqi quagmire – the ambition of the second Bush administration to spread freedom and democracy is undiminished, says Charles V Peña.
Anatol Lieven, right or wrong?
Anatol Lieven’s misunderstanding of nationalism, inconsistent liberalism, and personal prejudices deform his judgment of the relationship between Israel, the United States, and the Arab world, says Emanuele Ottolenghi.
Israel, the United States, and truth: a reply to Emanuele Ottolenghi
Anatol Lieven responds to Emanuele Ottolenghi’s fierce criticism of him in openDemocracy.
Guantánamo: America's war on human rights
The military aircraft in which Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul sat chained to a bench, soaked in their own urine, ear-muffed, masked and unable to see, landed at the American airstrip at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on 14 January 2002. The two men, who had travelled to Pakistan from their homes in Britain five months earlier in order to attend Iqbal’s wedding, had already survived a massacre of prisoners by their original captors, the private army of the Afghan warlord Rashid Dostum.
The crisis of universalism: America and radical Islam after 9/11
In a trenchant analysis of the post-9/11 world, Fred Halliday documents the two-sided assault both by the United States and its fundamentalist enemies on universal principles. Can citizens of the world retrieve a confident, humane politics from beneath the rubble?
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
.jpg)
Remote control war
Stay Informed
Sign-up for a free weekly email
Sign-up for a free weekly email
Advertising notice
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
Cities in Conflict
Window on the Middle East
openDemocracy on Twitter
openDemocracy on Facebook
Our Authors
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
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
