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# October 17 - 23 on openDemocracy
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/october-17-23-on-opendemocracy/
- Published: 2011-10-31T15:10:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-23T00:48:59.000Z
- Description: The first ever use of bombing was in Libya 100 years ago, in 1911. Gaddafi’s gruesome end is arguably one legacy of that attack. We mark it with a sweeping survey of aerial destruction and its effect on our souls, announcing a three-day international conference in London supported by openDemocracy
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: The Week in 1 Minute, #Migrated, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 17:19, #appended-excerpt

Power at a distance: don’t they love it. [Mary Kaldor](https://www.opendemocracy.net/mary-kaldor/can-intervention-work-by-rory-stewart-and-gerald-knaus-book-review) reviews a new book on intervention: she says that everyone underestimates the political intelligence of the poor sods on the ground.

This is a big question posed by the Arab Awakening. It preoccupies our writers after Gaddafi’s death. The Palestinian [Ahmad Samih Khalidi](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ahmad-samih-khalidi/revolutionary-change-in-arab-world-what-prospects-for-palestinians) meditates deeply to conclude that little will become what it seems. [Khalil al-Anani](https://www.opendemocracy.net/khalil-al-anany/egypt%E2%80%99s-souring-transition) sets out a crisp and contemptuous dissection of the Egyptian military’s attempt to keep power. Mehmet Dosemeci sees a ‘[Mediterranean moment](https://www.opendemocracy.net/mehmet-dosemeci/democracy-in-revolution-mediterranean-moment)’ and Sami Zubaidi concludes [his analysis](https://www.opendemocracy.net/sami-zubaida/arab-spring-in-historical-perspective) of the ideological underpinnings of the entire Arab political landscape while [David Held](https://www.opendemocracy.net/david-held/from-american-century-to-cosmopolitan-order) sets out a cosmopolitan framework for pluralism in a post-realpolitik era.

[Polly Pallister-Wilkins](https://www.opendemocracy.net/polly-pallister-wilkins/searching-for-accountability-in-eu-migration-management-practices) presents a thorough analysis of the EU’s un-cosmopolitan migration management and its failures - while the Arab Awakening exposes its double standards.

‘Cosmopolitan’ is not a word that springs to the lips of those involved in the new #Occupy movement taking to cities in the wake of [Occupy Wall Street (David Graeber’s account of how it began),](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/david-graeber/on-playing-by-rules-%E2%80%93-strange-success-of-occupywallstreet) and [Rome](https://www.opendemocracy.net/james-walston/flames-in-rome)? As London joins in, OurKingdom hosts a rapidly growing collection of first hand reports and arguments on the [#Occupy movements](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/collections/occupy-movements).

If you prefer to keep up with the grim side, [openSecurity reports](https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/josephine-whitaker/n-korea-food-crisis-set-to-continue) in short, informative posts on starvation in North Korea, plans to hammer Kurdish guerrillas, the staggering monsoon floods in mainland Southeast Asia and the US pullout from Iraq. [Chris Wilkins exposes](https://www.opendemocracy.net/chris-wilkins/inharmonious-society) the underlying social conflicts in Hong Kong’s benevolent despotism. [Costas Constantinou](https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/costas-m-constantinou/escapades-at-sea-sovereignty-legality-and-machismo-in-eastern-med) looks at machismo in the most recent episode of the Cyprus conflict, where Turkey’s ascent as a regional power is in full display, while [nationalism](https://www.opendemocracy.net/william-armstrong/significant-changes-in-turkish-religion-and-turkish-nationalism) at home grows.

On the (alleged) Iranian plot in Washington, we question the [official story](https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/ali-khan/i-spy-with-my-little-eye-something-beginning-with-i%E2%80%A6), uncovering [internal struggles](https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/arash-falasiri/irans-message-in-bottle) in the Islamic Republic, and assessing the implications: [is war on Iran imminent](https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-rogers/war-on-iran-delusive-logic)? 

But to end on a positive note: there is hope for a [world without borders](https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/danny-dorling/possible-peak-population%E2%80%99-world-without-borders). Could the future be cosmopolitan?

Three interesting links from elsewhere:

[How the catastrophe of the little known 1991 western intervention in Algeria shows Muslim governments must be tolerated not destroyed.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8843214/Libya-The-Arab-Spring-may-yet-turn-to-chilly-winter.html?ref=opendemocracy.net)

[It goes back to the shameful massacre of ordinary Algerians in Paris this month in 1911 given the coverage it deserves in the daily Mail.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052098/The-modern-massacre-shames-French-The-police-slaughter-Algerian-immigrants-just-50-years-ago-thats-airbrushed-history.html?ref=opendemocracy.net)

[Drones – the new arms race](http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,792590,00.html?ref=opendemocracy.net)

The first ever use of bombing was in Libya 100 years ago, in 1911\. Gaddafi’s gruesome end is arguably one legacy of that attack. We mark it with [a sweeping survey](https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-gilroy-les-back/hundred-years-of-bombing-what-has-it-done-to-us) of aerial destruction and its effect on our souls, announcing a three-day international conference in London supported by openDemocracy: [ Shock and Awe – a century of bombing](//www.shockandawe.org.uk/ ).