The strong men of dissident Irish Republicanism are put under the microscope by Paul Nolan. Why, after an exemplary peace process, does violent sectarianism still play such a role in Northern Ireland?Nolan explains the world from the point of view of all the fighters who can’t give up their struggle. 

Russia is familiar with strongmen, and recent laws restricting freedom mark another step backwards in the direction of Soviet style policies. Still, a new law on defamation is necessary, argues Poel Karp, only not this one. 

Timothy Garton Ash leads a project on the Free Speech Debate: openDemocracy’s editor Rosemary Bechler meets him in Oxford,wondering who and what is best equipped to help the peoples of the world to be sufficiently free and able to rise to the challenges we face. 

Our Editor-in-Chief Magnus Nome muses on the blood sport of politics, and how Romney’s choice of the ideologically extreme Paul Ryan as VP candidate might influence the race. 

In Syria, where Assad’s position is weakening but his arsenal still formidable, Issa Khalaf worries that Washington has set in motion processes it can’t control. 

A lot of the strong women and men of openDemocracy’s week came through the happier door of our Olympics coverage. OurBeeb’s Lydia Graystone asked what we all thought of the BBC’s coverage; Heather McRobie examines whether any medals should be awarded for gender balance; Patrice de Beer wonders whetherflags and anthems ought to be banned; Mark Perryman gives us the thinking person’s Olympics reading list; and the front page editor goes to town on stills from Leni Riefenstahl. 

Strong men in fiction - or is it men in strong fiction - are the subject of James Warner’s overview of the gay sci-fi oeuvre of Samuel R Delany, while the weakness of great strength - and vice versa - is the subject of Tony Curzon Price’s essay on Conrad’s Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness. 

Links not to miss: 

A heartbeat away from the presidency? The New Yorker profiles Paul Ryan before tap

Man 1, Bank 0 – harmless fun with a fake check turns serious 

The best UK Economics blog commentary on UK macroeconomics 

And, social exclusiveness exists within groups of dolphins 

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