1. Fukuyama’s moment: a neocon schism opens
28 October
The man who declared the end of history and joined the inside track on United States foreign policy turns on his erstwhile allies. “I would forgive a lot if any of these people who were very strong advocates of the [Iraq] war showed any reflectiveness about what’s happened”, Francis Fukuyama tells openDemocracy’s Danny Postel.
2. Michael Moore, Alas
1 July
“The master demagogue an age of demagoguery made”. openDemocracy’s North America editor and US election year columnist Todd Gitlin on Fahrenheit 9/11 and the dude who asked where his country was.
3. Inside the Fire
13 April
They made a wasteland and called it peace. British anti-war activist Jo Wilding was one of very few westerners inside the Iraqi town of Fallujah during the first major US assault this year, in April. Her harrowing account was first published in openDemocracy.
4. Neo-conservatism and the American future
7 July
openDemocracy readers cannot get enough on the neocons, it seems. Stefan Halper, a senior official in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, and Jonathan Clarke, a former British diplomat, say neo-conservatism has created an “axis of disorder” that will not disappear even if its current champions fade from view.
5. America right or wrong
8 September
A veteran analyst of nationalist pathologies in the former Soviet empire and elsewhere turns his searchlight on the dark corners of the US psyche, and finds demons in the cellar of America’s fine house. A masterly summary and introduction to Anatol Lieven’s America Right or Wrong – one of the most important books of 2004.
6. Untranslatable words
July to December
Albanian to Japanese; Persian to Welsh; Thai to Southern Californian: every language has words that trigger personal truths, national histories, or cultural peculiarities. Writers from across the world translate the untranslatable.
7. Terrorism in historical perspective
22 April
Six weeks after bombs in the Spanish capital killed hundreds, and almost killed thousands, openDemocracy published this brilliant survey by Fred Halliday of the history, impact, and likely future of terrorism.
8. America votes, Bush wins, the world responds
3 November
As the last votes of the US election were counted, openDemocracy writers worldwide gave their personal reactions to the result. For one, in Europe, it marks a joyous, final sidelining of the sinister fools of the left. Another, in the US, feels like he is entering Jimmy Stewart’s nightmare of Pottersville.
9. America and Arabia after Saddam
13 May
The Iraq war is only one aspect of a “greater west Asian crisis” that carries the danger of further terrible violence, says the historian and analyst Fred Halliday in his second outing to openDemocracy’s top ten.
10. The SWISH Report
14 July
If al–Qaida asked strategic advisors to report on the consortium’s progress to date and assess future options, what would they say? This fictional riff by openDemocracy’s global security correspondent Paul Rogers caused ructions. Did Osama bin Laden read it before his October TV surprise?
With thanks to Kostas Alekoglu for hard work with the statistics package
